Rory: ❝ At this point, between Malfoy and Jinx, I’m getting to the point of just locking the three of them in closet and not letting them out till they talk civilly to each other for once…❞
Jacqueline: ❝ So, I’m not the only one getting annoyed by these oblivious dorks. I can’t tell you how many times I been trying to study and thought of slipping one of them a truth speaking potion.❞
Tiffany: ❝ Just be glad you don’t have to hear Hermione, the girl who’s supposed to be the smartest witch our age, rant about the duo while not realizing her own feelings.❞
Summary: She had seen this look before, the way his eyes were full of love and longing, but they had always been directed toward Nancy. Or at least she thought. (Ao3)
Characters/Pairings: Steve x OC, Nancy x Jonathan
Word Count: 4,592
Warnings: Barb’s funeral, mentions of death, some angst, fluff, mild sexual content/suggestions
A/N: This is a big chapter! There may an epilogue to tie up some loose ends, but for now, this is the end. Thanks to everyone who has liked, reblogged, and commented on this. This is the first multi-chapter fic that I’ve ever written and finished, as well as my first OC fic, so I’m quite proud of it. Please let me know what you think! I’m afraid I messed up on the timeline a bit and should have included Barb’s funeral in the last chapter, but work with me here… :)
one / two / three / four / five / six / seven / eight / nine / ten / eleven / twelve / thirteen, part one / thirteen, part two / fourteen
Barb’s funeral was a small event. Steve was the one to bring up going, thinking it would be the right thing to do for the girl’s memory, but Jacqueline also knew he was going out of guilt. His relationship with Nancy had officially begun the night Barb went missing and Nancy made it clear during their breakup that it was their fault she died. It wasn’t true, of course, and Jacqueline tried to convince him of this, but there were some wounds even she couldn’t heal.
Jacqueline spent the burial with her eyes glued to the picture of Barb sitting next to the casket. The empty casket.
When it was over, Steve decided to go talk to Barb’s parents. He’d told her about the dinners he and Nancy would go to with the Holland’s and how horrible he (and Nancy) felt any time they would mention their continued search for Barb. She would never be able to understand that the same way as Nancy, and in some ways she was thankful to not have to feel it, but she would always be connected to Barb through the Upside Down. That was almost as painful, she imagined.
“I’ll stay here,” she said, letting go of Steve’s hand which she had been gripping since they walked out to the cemetery. Or perhaps he was holding onto her. Maybe both.
“You sure?”
She nodded.
“I’ll be right back,” Steve said before walking over to the Holland’s. There was a small crowd gathered around them, including Nancy, and Jacqueline looked away to find Jonathan.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to give them her condolences, but she’d never met Barb’s parents before, and it felt a little strange to go over with Steve while Nancy was also talking to them. The Holland’s knew Nancy and they knew Nancy and Steve as a couple.
It had been two weeks since she told Steve she loved him, two weeks since they agreed to pretend it never happened, and Jacqueline had been doing a pretty good job at it. But Steve was still hung up on Nancy, and seeing the two of them interact, as stilted as it was, caused a sharp pain to hit her in the chest. It was hard. She wanted to move on from her feelings and be just friends again so badly, but witnessing the exes interact at all hurt.
“Are you doing okay?” Jonathan asked when she moved to stand next to him. He must have been feeling the same way about Nancy and Steve. Since the Gate was closed and Jacqueline was rescued from the tunnels, it was obvious to everyone that Nancy and Jonathan’s relationship was progressing. Jacqueline was happy for her friends, especially knowing how much Jonathan cared for the girl over the past year, even if it was something else that was awkward in their lives. In fact, she barely saw Jonathan since then. She was either with Steve or Jonathan was with Nancy when they took Will home from hanging out with the other kids.
“I’m fine.” It was an automatic response at that point. It wasn’t a lie; she was doing much better than she expected after everything that happened. Sometimes she would get scared out of nowhere, but she could reel herself in, reminding herself where she was and that everything was over. Other times, Steve was able to do it and those were the moments she started to believe he actually loved her. Then they would go back to whatever they were doing before without another word. Fine felt fitting. Not great, but good enough.
Jonathan’s eyes were still on Nancy, Steve, and the Holland’s as he spoke.
“Sorry we haven’t hung out in a while.”
“It’s okay, Jonathan. I know you’ve been spending a lot of time with Nancy.” She glanced over at him. “I understand.”
“Yeah, we’re trying to figure it out.” When Jonathan looked at her, he was more relaxed than she’d ever seen him. His face was fuller and the circles under his eyes were faded.
“I’m happy for you, for both of you.”
Jacqueline knew just how much Jonathan cared for Nancy, how much he loved her, and despite how uncomfortable everything with the four of them could be, she was glad that two of her friends were figuring things out. She was irritated with Nancy to a degree since it sounded like her feelings for Jonathan had always been stronger than those she had for Steve, but they still deserved a real love. And she knew what it was like to be a teenage girl with conflicting feelings.
Jonathan’s lips quirked into a smile even with the somber mood of the funeral.
“Maybe you can come over sometime to hang out with me and Will.”
“That would be great. There’s plenty of time with winter break coming up.” She let her eyes travel over to the group before focusing back on her friend. “Is Will going to the Snowball?”
“If mom will let him out of her sight,” he said and she laughed softly before sobering. “I volunteered to take pictures, so I’ll be there to watch out for him.”
Jacqueline glanced over at Steve and Nancy, who were now standing away from the Holland’s. She couldn’t hear their conversation, but they were talking to each other. There was that pain in her chest again. She looked down and then said, “I told Steve I love him.”
Jonathan was silent for a moment, probably out of shock. The fact that she told Steve still surprised her. If anyone understood her trust issues as well as her love for her best friend, it was Jonathan.
“When? Are you together now?”
“No.” She shook her head quickly. “No, nothing like that happened. It was two weeks ago. I told him and he tried to tell me he felt the same way, but he’s still hurting. We’re acting like it never happened.”
Jonathan turned to face her and she looked up to meet his eyes.
“Why? Do you think he would lie to you?”
She faltered as she tried to work out how to put it into words.
“I just think he’s still dealing with the breakup and everything else and, I don’t know, it would be easy for him to convince himself to move on with me.”
For a minute, she forgot that she was talking to Jonathan, the guy currently dating Steve’s ex-girlfriend. This wasn’t the summer when she told Jonathan all about her love for Steve. They were no longer both yearning for someone else.
“Jacqueline,” Jonathan started. “Sorry if this sounds mean, but you’re being stupid.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
“Maybe I’m not Steve’s biggest fan, but has he ever lied to you about what he feels about anything?”
“No,” she said slowly, her body beginning to heat up even in the November weather. “But -”
“You’re only going to hurt yourself and him if you let yourself believe he would do that to you. I saw how he was when he was looking for you. That’s not someone looking for a rebound, okay?”
Jacqueline peeked around his shoulder to see Steve and Nancy walking back toward them.
“He’s still hurting and I don’t want to mess up our friendship by forcing this.”
“Just so you know, I don’t think you would be forcing anything.” Jonathan shrugged and moved around to stand next to her again as the others’ footsteps in the fall leaves grew closer. “I worried about that, too, and everything worked out.”
Before she could say another word, Steve walked over and placed a hand on her elbow. She practically flinched.
“What?” He asked and she shook her head, smiling in Nancy’s direction.
Maybe she didn’t want to go over to Barb’s parents, but she could give Nancy some comfort after she watched her best friend’s burial. Stepping forward, Jacqueline awkwardly hugged her. They both stiffly patted each other’s backs before Nancy relaxed and gripped her to her chest.
“Barb would have been happy to know you came,” Nancy whispered in her ear. They hadn’t spoken much in the last couple of weeks, other than in the school hallways, but they were still friends. Nancy went out of her way several times to see if Jacqueline was doing okay, so it was the least she could do for the girl.
“She would have been even happier to know everything you went through for her.”
“Thanks, Jacqueline.”
Jacqueline pulled away first, both girls now with tears in their eyes. Without another word, they stepped back over to the boys and they all stood in silence until Steve broke it.
“We’re gonna go,” he said and gently took Jacqueline’s elbow again to guide her toward his car.
“Bye, Jonathan. Bye, Nancy.” Jacqueline waved to the other two who said ‘bye’ as well, Steve tilting his head in their direction.
The walk to his car was quiet. He moved his hand to her back and let her into the car first before going to get in himself.
She sat in the passenger seat with her eyes facing forward as she thought about everything that happened in the last few hours. Hearing everything Barb’s family said about her, watching her being lowered into the ground, talking to Jonathan about Nancy and Steve. It was all too much.
Her breathing sped up as she sat there, Steve watching her before he started talking.
“I know that was a lot,” he said, starting the car but not pulling away. It would take a few minutes for it to warm up. “But you did really good.”
He was trying to make her feel better and distract her from the panic building in her chest, but this time it wasn’t working.
“It’s not fair. It’s not fair that she died and Will and I are fine. It’s just not fair, Steve.” She bit her lip as she attempted to keep her tears at bay. No matter how hard she tried, they slid down her cheeks. “It’s not fair.”
“Jac, look at me. What isn’t fair is that it happened to any of you,” Steve said, moving a hand to cup her face and make her look at him. “But we have to move on.”
“Easier said than done.”
“I know, but I don’t want to keep thinking about how I almost lost you.”
Jacqueline closed her eyes as Steve ran a finger across one of her cheeks and then the other, wiping her tears away.
“You should know by now that it’s pretty hard to get rid of me,” she said, opening her eyes to look at him. What she saw in them was enough to take her breath. His eyes were unguarded and more serious than she’d ever seen before.
“Jac, I mean, I don’t want to be without you, ever.”
“You won’t be,” she whispered, grabbing his hand. His other still held her face and she leaned her cheek into his palm.
“I get why you don’t want me to say this, but we need to move on from everything that’s happened.” Steve pressed his forehead to hers. “I do love you.”
She pulled away in surprise before she opened her mouth to speak, but she didn’t know what to say. It took a long moment of staring at him before it registered for her. She had seen this look before, the way his eyes were full of love and longing, but they had always been directed toward Nancy. Or at least she thought. Jacqueline took a deep breath and let it out, the exhale sounding like a laugh.
“You’re serious.”
“Yeah.”
“Completely serious.”
“Do you remember that time I came to your house after I fought with Andrew?” When she nodded, he continued. “I was going to tell you that I liked you then, but I chickened out.”
“And then I got into a fight with Carol and you started dating Nancy.”
“Then we weren’t friends for a few months.”
Her nose scrunched up at the thought of the time they weren’t friends and Steve smiled at her.
“Do you still love me?”
She scoffed and rolled her eyes.
“That’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever said,” she replied tightening her grip on his hand. “Of course I do! I couldn’t stop in two weeks.” She couldn’t stop in two years.
“Good.” Steve grinned at her and pressed a quick kiss to her forehead before pulling back without another word. She was left sitting there in confusion.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m taking you home.”
“You’re -” She cleared her throat. “You just told me that you love me and you’re not going to say anything else or-or kiss me?”
“We’re in a cemetery,” he reminded her and she glanced out the window, cheeks immediately coloring.
“Right.”
“But, as soon as we get to my house, we can talk some more.”
The day had been full of so many emotions, the worst and the best ones, but she understood why Steve chose that moment to tell her how he felt. It wasn’t only time to move on, it was time to move forward.
Steve glanced over at Jacqueline every couple of minutes while he drove. She didn’t say anything the entire time and it was clear she was lost in her thoughts. He was slightly concerned that she was going to try to talk him out of this confession again, but he was going to fight this time.
When he pulled up to the house, he had to say her name to get her attention.
“Are you ready to go in?” He asked, hoping that speaking wasn’t going to ruin everything and scare her away. “My parents aren’t home.”
They rarely were, but after the emotional day, he figured Jacqueline needed to know they had the house to themselves.
Jacqueline nodded and got out of the car. She still didn’t speak and Steve couldn’t help the anxiety that was starting to course through his veins. What if she told him they couldn’t do this? It had only been a few weeks since his breakup with Nancy and Jacqueline could refuse to talk about this until it had been longer. He wasn’t sure he could handle that. Now that he finally told her over a year after he planned to, there was no going back for him. He meant what he told her; he wanted to move on, and he wanted - no, needed - to do that with her.
Once they were in the house, he watched in ever-growing silence while Jacqueline took off her coat and slipped off her heels. Was it possible that she realized how comfortable she was in his house? She’d called it ‘home’ several times. That had to be some kind of hint that their relationship was already different from most friendships. He’d been thinking about that a lot after she told him she loved him. He should have known. Jacqueline making herself at home eased some of his nervousness. It didn’t look like she wanted to leave.
With that thought, he smiled to himself before removing his own coat.
Jacqueline was lost in her own head which was obvious to Steve as she moved further into the house. She still wasn’t talking, but that didn’t worry Steve in itself. No, Jacqueline was often quiet while she tried to work things out on her own, but the thing that got him was that she seemed to want him to kiss her in the car and now it was like she’d forgotten all about it.
Was something wrong?
When she turned around, she shrugged. “I don’t know,” she started with a frown. “I don’t know what we’re supposed to do or say now.”
She looked like a deer caught in the headlights as she gazed at him, big brown eyes open wide in such a vulnerable way. Steve stepped forward.
“It’s okay.”
Reaching her, he gently grasped her shoulders and met her eyes. He was feeling open and exposed, too, if he was being completely honest. For Jacqueline, he realized, this was probably the first time she was in a situation like this one. She’d only dated a few guys as far as Steve knew, and nothing serious. This was big deal for both of them and he didn’t want her to be scared of it. He didn’t want her to be afraid of being with him.
For the first few days after she told him how she felt, Steve was confused and a little angry. He wasn’t mad at her but with her wanting to pretend she didn’t say it. She wanted to pretend that he didn’t feel the same, and he just couldn’t do that. Some other people may have been able to do that, but that wasn’t him.
“Do you just want to sit? We don’t have to talk right now.”
It pained him to say that. He wanted to talk; he needed to talk so they could work things out, but if she wasn’t ready, he couldn’t force it without potentially causing some problems. And he promised her nothing could ruin them.
Jacqueline only nodded before looking at him. Usually she would walk into the living room or up to his room, she would plop down onto the couch, she would turn on the television, she would go through his tapes. This time, she wasn’t moving. When she looked at him again with the same startled expression, he realized that she was wanting for his guidance. It was his turn to make the first move.
Standing in the Harrington’s entryway, Jacqueline searched Steve’s face for even the tiniest hint of… something. Anything to tell her what direction to go in because she was unsure. She could read every emotion as it flickered across his face, but she still didn’t know what to do.
She believed Steve when he told her nothing could ruin them, but she was still scared.
She only had to wait a couple minutes time spent pondering their options, letting her eyes flick from Steve to the door. She didn’t want to run away this time. It was just nerve wracking waiting to see what move Steve was going to make. Then he leaned down a couple inches until their foreheads touched. She took in a deep breath but relaxed against him.
“I won’t let this change us,” he whispered, his breath fanning against her face. With a nod, she wrapped her arms tightly around his waist.
“But -” She got out before he made a sound of protest.
“But what?”
Jacqueline sighed and said, “We can’t just jump into anything without talking about it.”
“Why not?” There was a hint of frustration in his voice but the pout on his face was fake. That alone cut a lot of the tension and Jacqueline half-heartedly poked him in the back. Then she laughed.
“We’ve been friends too long to not talk about how this would change everything.”
“Isn’t that the point? We would be more than that. That’s all.”
Jacqueline bit her lip. He was right and she would love to take this step, but they were graduating in less that seven months. Being together would change so much of their futures and, if they were a couple, parting for college would be much harder. He had to know.
“And, besides,” he said before she could voice her concerns. “Maybe we’ve been more than friends for a long time.”
Steve pulled back slightly to look at the necklace resting on her chest. It was the moon and star necklace from Nancy the Christmas before though Jacqueline knew it was secretly from Steve. The sentiment from Nancy was sweet at the time, but it meant more to her because of Steve’s involvement in helping to pick it out and likely being the one to purchase it. “How many best friends do you know that touch all the time?”
He punctuated his words by running two fingers from the pendant to her neck in a featherlight touch.
“Does this feel like just a friend to you?”
Capturing her bottom lip between her teeth, she slowly shook her head.
“No,” he murmured, continuing up her neck until he cupped her cheek. “I know you’re scared, but we don’t have to make this complicated. I think we’ve been ready.”
She couldn’t help but smile at him. He sounded wiser than she’d ever heard him before and she was proud of that. Of course she was; he was her best friend, but he had a point. All their little touches added up to a complex puzzle of the way they showed each other how they felt. And that puzzle was almost complete.
“Have you been thinking about this?”
Steve ran his thumb over her bottom lip.
“For weeks.”
“What if -” She cut herself off because she didn’t know what to say.
“Don’t,” Steve said and he pulled body flush against his, eyes staring into hers. “Don’t run from us.”
His voice cracked and she froze, throat constricting as she took a stuttering breath. His words snapped her out of her doubts and she surged up, capturing his lips in an almost bruising kiss. He kissed her back with so much fervor that she could have sworn her heart skipped a beat. He cupped her other cheek as they kissed, pulling her lips even closer. There was never anyone like Steve who knew how to touch her just right to convey the exact emotion she needed. A simple touch for support, a hug of comfort, or a kiss of true, unwavering love. This was all the confirmation she needed that they were doing something right. When they pulled apart, she smiled softly.
“I won’t run.” She bit her lip before pressing them to his again. “I swear.”
This was actually happening. She never let herself believe that they could be together, but Steve was full of surprises.
“You really love me,” she said, voice full of wonder.
“I do.” Steve squeezed her hip before leading her to the couch where he plopped down and pulled her onto his lap.
“Steve!” She shouted out in surprise, but Steve only laughed and leaned in to kiss her again, so she couldn’t be irritated for long. Not when he was kissing her like he was trying to memorize the feel of her lips.
After a few minutes of kissing, Jacqueline adjusted herself on his lap so she was straddling his thighs. She looked down at him and worried her bottom lip.
“Is this okay?”
“It’s fine,” he said, resting his hands high on her waist. “Anything you want to do is fine.”
With a soft laugh, she leaned into him again. God, she never wanted to stop kissing him. Now that she knew how it felt to have his lips on hers, she could do it all the time. She could do it forever. That was kind of the plan.
“This is what I want to do.”
Pecking his lips, she let her mouth trail from his to his jaw and then his neck. He was like a magnet. With the way he moaned softly, the noise alone causing a shiver to run through her body, it sounded like he didn’t want to stop either. When one of his hands squeezed her thigh, Jacqueline involuntarily rolled her hips against his. Another moan fell from his lips. She could feel the vibrations in his throat under her lips and her hips canted forward again. Then she realized what she was doing and pulled back.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured. Her cheeks were burning but Steve shook his head.
“It’s okay. I mean it.” He pressed a gentle kiss to her neck and her eyes slid shut. “Don’t be shy with me now, Jac.”
Jacqueline made a sound in the back of her throat, either a sound of agreement or a moan. It was enough to spur him on. Despite making out with a few boys before, this was the first time anyone had ever really touched her this way. It made sense that it was Steve.
Those kisses had been nothing compared to this. Her body was reacting to each kiss in ways she never thought possible, but she felt safe in his arms and that meant so much now. She smiled.
“You make me feel safe,” she whispered, more to herself than to Steve.
His resulting words were almost enough to make her cry. “I won’t let anything hurt you.”
“I know.” She slid a hand up the back of his neck and into the hair at the nape. “Do I get special permission to touch your hair now?”
He scoffed, moving his lips away from her neck, to which she responded with an exaggerated pout.
“You already had it.”
“Well, it’s been a while.” Her hand travelled further up until she was holding the back of his head. He tilted his head back into her hand. “You look really cute like this,” she said before giggling a bit at herself. Now that she could say and do whatever she wanted with him, she was letting all sorts of things out.
“And you look beautiful all the time.” He moved one of his hands up her leg, resting just under the skirt of her dress. Again, her body heated up.
“When - When will your parents be home?”
“Tomorrow night,” he replied, dark eyes staring into hers.
“Take me to your room.”
They stared at each other for a long moment in a silent conversation before Jacqueline nodded.
“I have an idea,” Steve said later, thumb running lazily along the bare skin of her shoulder.
“Hmm?” Her eyes were closed, but she was tuned into the sound of his voice and the rumble of his chest under her ear as he spoke.
“After graduation, we should leave.”
That got her full attention and she sat up in shock.
“Leave?”
“Yeah, for a little while,” Steve replied after recovering from staring at her now completely exposed chest. They hadn’t had sex - she wasn’t ready for that step yet - but somehow they’d still ended up with most of their clothes removed. She blushed but didn’t move to cover up. “We can go on a road trip, just the two of us, to work on being together.”
“That’s in over five months.” Jacqueline settled back into his arms, but not before pressing her lips gingerly to his. “Don’t you think we should already be used to this by then?”
She was smiling the entire time she spoke and Steve returned it with one of his own.
“Well, yeah, but it would be romantic.”
A soft laugh escaped her, but she was still smiling, and now there was a faint blush coloring her cheeks. She pressed her forehead to his chest.
“It would be. I think we already have it figured out anyway.” She took his hand and played with his fingers, tracing the lines of his palm. “But it would be nice to get away for awhile.”
Jacqueline loved Hawkins, it was her home, but getting out for even a week was tempting. Having time to explore this new relationship with Steve without anyone they knew around was the cherry on top. She looked back up at him.
“Let’s do it.”
The way Steve pulled her closer to his chest brought out a contented sigh from her lips. The past couple years had been heartbreaking, frightening, and defeating. They still had some obstacles, but they would be worth it.
Summary: Jacqueline Cooper was once the Queen of Hawkins High, but after a fight with Carol, she ran away from her best friend and popularity. Then Will Byers and Barbara Holland disappeared and they were thrust back into each other’s worlds. (Ao3)
Characters/Pairings: Steve x OC (slow burn), Steve x Nancy, hinted Jonathan x Nancy, Carol x Tommy
Word Count: 2,812
Warnings: friendship and relationship angst, some language, underage drinking, general strange things
A/N: This is my first ever Stranger Things and OC fic. It’s a bit of a reimagining of season one if there had been a core four of teenagers on the show. I do not own Stranger Things, any of its characters, or dialogue. I did use some of the same scenes, of course, but I tried to make them fit that idea and made them my own. It will get a little more AU as things go on. Hope you enjoy!
one / two / three / four / five / six / seven / eight / nine / ten / eleven / twelve / thirteen, part one / thirteen, part two / fourteen
Hawkins, Indiana
Fall 1983
Walking through the doors of Hawkins High, Jacqueline Cooper kept her eyes straight in front of her. A couple months ago she could have looked around and talked to some of her classmates, but a lot of things had changed.
The town was a town on edge after 12-year-old Will Byers and 16-year-old Barbara Holland had mysteriously disappeared within a couple of days time. It was unlike any tragedy that the town had ever experienced. Parents in the small town were becoming overprotective in a way they never had before and teens at Hawkins High weren’t talking about much else in the school hallways. All in all, the town had been turned upside down.
The general consensus regarding the disappearance of Will Byers was that his brother Jonathan had something to do with it. At least that was the gossip at the school. Of course, it was ridiculous. If you were unpopular, any sort of unsavory rumors were bound to get started. He wasn’t a violent person, but Jonathan was an easy target. His reputation came mostly from his antisocial behavior and the fact that he almost always had a camera hanging from his neck. Popularity was obviously not on his side.
Jacqueline understood this all too well. After a fall from the top of the high school food chain, the former Queen of Hawkins High was now friendless herself.
Meanwhile, Nancy Wheeler was making her way toward the top of that chain thanks to the attention from King Steve Harrington, one of the only people who had ever managed to break Jacqueline’s heart. Not that he knew anything about that.
But when the Barb went missing, Jacqueline had to put aside her feelings toward Nancy (Was it jealousy? Envy? Anger?) and reach out. They barely knew each other as they were in different grades, but Barb had been smart enough and nice enough, to tutor Jacqueline in math for the last few months. In that way, Nancy and Jacqueline had something connecting them that wasn’t Steve. As far as Jacqueline was concerned, that meant more than a boy.
So, as much as it unnerved her to approach the sophomore, knowing that there would be someone gossiping about it the second they were seen talking, Jacqueline found Nancy at her locker the morning that the news of Barb’s disappearance broke.
“Hey,” she started simply, clutching her books to her chest and attempting to look as cool, calm, and collected as possible. There were already people watching their exchange and soon, she was sure, rumors that she was trying to take back her throne or groveling at the new queen’s feet. It made her hands shake and she gripped the books tighter, causing her fingertips to turn white and ache.
Nancy immediately paused in retrieving her own textbook, one hand holding the locker door open. And the surprise flickered through her eyes before something else replaced it, nervousness.
That made two of them.
“Oh. Hi, Jacqueline.”
Jacqueline smiled softly at her, wanting to ease the girl’s nerves because this wasn’t about popularity or Steve.
“I just wanted to say that I’m really sorry about Barb. I know you two are close.” She nodded to herself and let her eyes flick around the ever-growing crowd in the hallway. Sure enough, there was Carol hanging onto Tommy’s arm with her eyes trained on the pair. Forcing her attention back to Nancy, she continued, “She’s been tutoring me in math for a while. Don’t know if she ever mentioned that, but she was - is a sweet girl. I hope she’s back soon.”
Her cheeks felt hot with embarrassment and she sent Nancy a final smile that came out more like a grimace before stepping to the side. As if on cue, she spotted Steve walking down the hall in that direction and turned quickly to leave.
“Thanks,” Nancy finally said from behind her. “There’s a search party after school.”
Jacqueline nodded and looked back to her, noticing that Nancy looked like she wanted to say more at the same time that Steve, followed closely by Tommy trying to look intimidating and a smirking Carol, approached the locker. Her eyes met Steve’s for just a moment before she focused back on Nancy and gave a terse nod.
“Yeah, I’ll be there.”
Before any of the other three could say anything, she continued on her way down the hall. It wasn’t until she was in her next class that she let her shoulders fall.
It felt like half the town showed up to search for Barbara Holland that night. News had already made its way around that Will Byer’s body had been recovered from a quarry nearby and, although it was still blocked off from the search, it made sense to look for Barb in that area.
Jacqueline showed up alone that night but found herself pairing up with Nancy. It was an extremely awkward experience for both of them. Jacqueline because she evidently had no idea how to talk to anyone anymore. And, sure, there were Jacqueline’s uncomfortable feelings toward Nancy, but she wasn’t prepared to get into that. She was sure she would never be ready for that.
They were both there for the same reason, though, to find Barb, and at that moment, they were both more determined to do that than anything else. They didn’t have to be friends to care about the same person.
Through the couple hours walk, few things were said, but to both of their relief, it was mostly about Will and Barb. Never once did either of them mention the situation between them.
By the end of the night, even without any sign of Barb or her whereabouts, Jacqueline felt a bit of a weight lifted off her shoulders. Sending Nancy a genuine smile, she leaned forward to hug the younger girl. Nancy was a couple inches taller than her, so that was awkward for a moment, but Nancy seemed to appreciate the action.
“They’ll find her,” Jacqueline whispered as she pulled away.
“I’m going to find her,” Nancy corrected and Jacqueline nodded slowly, almost impressed with the look in her eyes. “I’m looking more tonight.”
“Whoa. Are you sure? That’s dangerous, especially right now.”
Nancy looked down and then back up, shyly, “I’ll be at Steve’s.”
“Right.” With a sudden tightness in her throat, Jacqueline forced out a quick, “Good night,” and rushed off to her car.
The next couple days went by without much development in Jacqueline’s life or the search for Barb. School was excruciating, but that had been expected. She and Carol had two almost altercations while she tried to talk to Nancy, and it was obvious that Nancy knew all about it from the look on her face as the girls practically squared off in the hallway. Their fight a couple months ago was still fresh in her mind.
Their little party had been going well after the boys left until Jacqueline stupidly thought that Carol would stick by her, thanks to a few too many cups of whatever mixed drink Carol had whipped up for them. But Carol was also feeling the effects of the alcohol and she was even harsher in those moments.
Then Jacqueline muttered the words, “I think I’m going to tell Steve” and all hell broke loose. It was all due to Carol’s jealousy and Jacqueline knew it.
As soon as Carol tried to convince her not to do it, to not embarrass herself, Jacqueline shakily pushed herself up from the couch and glared Carol’s way.
“You’re just jealous!” Jacqueline accused, her eyes flashing angrily. There had been plenty of arguments between the two since they had known each other since 2nd grade, but this all stemmed from years of Jacqueline holding in her feelings. “You’re jealous because I’m more popular than you. And if Steve feels the same, no one will care about you and Tommy anymore. You don’t care about my embarrassment.”
Jacqueline blew out a breath as Carol stood and met her gaze with one full of just as much venom. If not more.
“Like hell, I’m jealous of you. You know we’re just friends with you because of Steve, right? He didn’t want to leave you behind after your daddy left, but lover boy’s got his eyes set on Nancy Wheeler now.” Carol fixed her with a look that said ‘take that’ and Jacqueline tried her best to not let the surprise show on her face. Carol’s voice took on a babying tone as she patted Jacqueline’s shoulder. “Oh, you didn’t know? So, sure, go ahead and embarrass yourself.”
Carol grinned at her before taking another sip of her drink. Jacqueline was sure this was the end of that friendship, not that it was much of one, but the thought of Steve leading her on for so long caused her eyes to burn. They had been best friends since they were 13. She wanted to scream. So she did the one thing she had inherited from her dad and bolted. Up the stairs, out the door, and down the street, she walked as quickly as her legs could take her until she was a few streets over and had to stop to get her bearings.
Once she was back in the safe confines of her house, thankful for once that her mom was already in bed, she leaned against the door and allowed herself to cry.
If she could control anything, that was going to the last time she let someone make her cry.
Her feelings hadn’t changed much since that fight; she still stupidly cared for Steve and distance had done little to change that. Seeing Steve in the halls and class was still difficult, especially now that he had a girlfriend, but Jacqueline couldn’t deny that Nancy would probably be a good change for him. Nancy was definitely a nicer person than Carol and Tommy. As much as it hurt, there was a great amount of relief knowing that he would have a positive influence in his life. And that made her angry at herself for still caring so much about him.
She briefly wondered what their friendship could have been like without Carol and Tommy involved, but that was something she couldn’t think about too long or she would either tell him everything she felt or do something else that she would equally regret.
So she tried to stay in the shadows as much as possible, sitting in new seats away from him in their classes and rushing out of class the second the bell rang.
Her house had become colder since the day her dad left and her mother began to either be out all the time or closing herself up in her room. Before all of this, she would have been out with Carol, Nicole, or Steve, but she had become accustomed to eating dinners alone and spending her evenings doing homework in silence or music playing on the record player.
It was completely unusual for the phone to ring.
When she first heard it, she ignored it until she realized just how strange it was for someone to be calling. It could be her mom calling from work or a friend’s house, so she pushed herself up from her desk and walked over to the phone on her bedside table.
“Hello?”
“Jacqueline? It’s Nancy, Nancy Wheeler.”
“Hi, Nancy,” she said slowly, unsure as to why the girl would be calling her. Or how she had her phone number at all. She sat down on the bed and twirled the cord around her finger.
“Steve gave me your number,” Nancy explained as if she was reading her mind. “I hope that’s okay.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. What’s up?”
“This is going to sound crazy, but I need help.”
Jacqueline’s mind flooded with thoughts of what the girl could need her help with. Clothes? Date ideas?
But the request that came out of Nancy’s mouth shocked her so much that she almost lost her grip on the phone.
“I need someone to go with me to the woods. I’m going to find Barb.”
And, well, damn, she couldn’t say no when the confidence and determination was so strong in Nancy’s voice.
Jonathan Byers was there with Nancy when Jacqueline arrived. That was unexpected. She hadn’t said more than two words to him since high school began, and from the look on his face, that might not change anytime soon. His brother had just been buried that day and she couldn’t imagine he was going to be more talkative than usual.
Nancy looked relieved when she saw her and Jacqueline felt a surge of pride flow through her at being able to show up for someone. She held up a bag with a flashlight, thermos of hot tea, and a first aid kit in it.
“So, what the hell is going on?” She asked.
After listening to Nancy and Jonathan explain to her all about some Christmas lights, pictures of a monster in Steve’s backyard, and the idea that Will and Barb had been taken, the pair left her sitting on the trunk of her car in astonishment. It was obvious that they were whispering about her from the way Jonathan kept glancing over and shaking his head while they spoke.
It took a few minutes for all of the information to soak in, mostly that Jonathan didn’t believe that his brother was dead despite his body having been found, but she wasn’t going to let him make her feel like she didn’t belong there. She was in this now and, as determination flowed through her veins, she slid off the car and walked over.
Nancy looked at her expectantly and Jacqueline squared her shoulders and said, “Let’s find them.”
“Why are you doing this?” Jonathan asked her some time later. Nancy sent him a look before Jacqueline shrugged. It wasn’t a bad question. She was bored, sure, but this was potentially the most dangerous thing she could be doing.
“Barb has always been nice to me and not because she felt like she had to be.” Jacqueline was a normal teenager as far as she was concerned, even while she was riding Steve’s popularity. “Plus, your brother is a child. If someone has them, we have to do something.”
Jonathan seemed to be mulling this over before asking, “But shouldn’t you hate Nancy?”
“Sure,” she answered quickly. Nancy glanced at both of them in offense before Jacqueline hit her shoulder with her own. “But I don’t.”
They were all silent for a few minutes as they walked through the woods. To anyone else, they would look like an unlikely trio, but in that moment, with most of their feelings for one another out in the open, they made a good team.
“And don’t tell me how to feel, Byers,” she said suddenly, a firm tone to her voice. “I - I don’t let people dictate my actions anymore.”
And that was all that was said for a while. Until suddenly, she ended up split up from the other two, wandering off by herself. It wasn’t until she heard Jonathan yelling out Nancy’s name that she found him, running over to him with wide eyes.
“Jonathan, what’s going on?”
“She walked off and I can’t find her,” he said in a panic and she yelled out the other girl’s name before looking at him.
“It’s okay. We’ll find her. We can split up; I’ll go that way.” She pointed to her left with the flashlight but Jonathan quickly shook his head and pulled her after him, shouting out for Nancy repeatedly.
Then they heard a loud scream and Jonathan turned toward the sound, taking off towards it. Jacqueline ran as fast as she could after him, tripping over a branch and dropping her flashlight. By the time she got it, Jonathan was no longer in her sight, so she walked the direction he was going and waited to hear him or Nancy.
It didn’t take long to hear him and she started running again, hearing him telling Nancy to follow his voice. When she got to him, he was standing in front of a tree that had some sort of glowing goo on the side of it.
“What the hell?” She whispered to herself as Jonathan went closer to the tree and begged Nancy to come out. The shock was running through her body as a hand pushed through the tree and she screamed out, putting her hand over her own mouth before Jonathan realized that it was Nancy and began to pull her out.
Once the girl was out of the tree, a freaking tree, Jonathan and Nancy collapsed onto the ground and Jacqueline let herself close her eyes to take a deep breath.
Summary: With Will safe and Steve back in her life, 1984 was supposed to be a great year for them all, but Jacqueline was wrong. The drama was just beginning. (Ao3)
Characters/Pairings: Steve x OC (slow burn), Steve x Nancy, Jonathan x OC (friendship), Nancy x OC (friendship), hinted Jonathan x Nancy, Tommy x Carol, Billy Hargrove
Word Count: 2,717
Warnings: underage drinking/drunkenness, relationship angst (Steve x Nancy), some language
A/N: We’re getting into season 2 now! The next two chapters are what I call part two of this fic, hence the new summary. I do not own Stranger Things, any of its characters, or dialogue. I did use some of the same scenes, of course, but I tried to make them my own. Thanks for all the kind words!
one / two / three / four / five / six / seven / eight / nine / ten / eleven / twelve / thirteen, part one / thirteen, part two / fourteen
Fall 1984
“This is Jacqueline,” Carol said as she, and whoever she was talking to, approached her. Jacqueline had barely been at her locker for ten seconds before the other girl came up. She’d probably been waiting all morning to corner her. Jacqueline groaned inwardly, grabbing her English textbook and turning around to face Carol, plastering a smile onto her face.
“Carol,” she greeted calmly. The person she had been talking to was a guy she had never seen before at Hawkins High. Attractive, extremely tight jeans, and an air about him that told her right away that he knew he was hot. But she had seen much better hair.
The guy sent her a smirk as he ran his eyes over her body, practically leering at her chest. Jacqueline rolled her eyes to herself. She already hated him.
“Billy Hargrove,” he said as if she had shown any sort of interest.
“Welcome to Hawkins, I guess.” Holding her book with one arm, Jacqueline closed her locker. “I have to get to class.”
“Wait.” Carol smiled and leaned into Billy. “Billy, this is the Jacqueline I was telling you about earlier. She used to be cool, but now she hangs out with freaks.”
Jacqueline stepped forward and was so close to giving her ex-friend a piece of her mind when Carol laughed.
“Speaking of, here comes the freak now.”
Despite herself, Jacqueline turned her head to see Jonathan walking over to her. He glanced uneasily at Carol and Billy before focusing on her.
“Hey,” he said in that quiet tone that she had become accustomed to in the last few months.
“Hi!” She responded and quickly grabbed his arm, pulling him away from the locker and down the hall without another word to Carol and Billy.
“What was that about?”
Jacqueline let go of his arm before grabbing a piece of paper out of his hand.
Tina’s Halloween party. Come and get sheet faced. She snorted. “Carol was just filling the new guy in on who’s who at Hawkin’s High.” She handed back the flyer. “You going?”
“No. I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Nancy’s trying to talk me into it.”
“Oh, is she?” She teased with a grin, bumping his arm with hers.
She and Jonathan had become much closer after the Demogorgon experience. Even with Steve back in her life, sometimes she still only saw him at school since he was busy with sports and Nancy.
The summer had been great, almost like old times with lazy days spent by Steve's pool and staying up all night watching movies at her place, and she occasionally showed up at his house in the middle of the night when she couldn't sleep, but they were just friends. He was with Nancy much more.
So she and Jonathan had settled into a little arrangement. They weren’t dating, but they sometimes went to the movies together and he had shown her how to process pictures. Of course, there were rumors about them, and that had bothered him in the beginning of the school year, but whatever. She was over caring about that because she had better people in her life.
All in all, it was convenient. It kept them from being lonely at the very least, for the most part.
And it wasn’t like she was planning on introducing him to her mother.
It was nice.
Jonathan’s feelings for Nancy had only grown stronger over the past year, so much so that he had attempted to push Nancy away. Jacqueline had insisted that wasn’t the way to do it, that it would only make things worse, but he had still tried, and evidently failed.
“Maybe you should go,” she said softly. “Go hang out with her. She obviously misses you.”
“I hate parties.” Jonathan sighed and walked away as the bell rang signaling the start of the next period.
When Jacqueline got to her English class, she was relieved to see that the teacher hadn’t closed the door yet. He was facing away from the door while he talked to another student, so she snuck in and made her way over to her desk against the wall, right next to Steve.
He tossed a crumpled up flyer onto her desk as soon as she sat down. She unraveled it and smoothed it onto the desktop. There in his handwriting, he had written out a note to her.
Come to Tina’s party.
She wrinkled her nose and mouthed, “no.”
Steve rolled his eyes before changing them into his best puppy dog ones. Damn him. This time she shook her head as he reached forward and snatched up the paper, writing on it once again.
When it landed on her desk this time, he grinned over at her.
You can dress like that chick from 16 candles.
As she read the note, she muttered a “haha” loud enough for him to hear. If he only knew about her own romantic angst.
“Or the girl from Flashdance?” He whispered, leaning over so he was close to her ear. Then he pulled back and winked.
She quickly jotted something on the paper before throwing it at him and purposefully hitting him on the head.
If you shut up, I’ll go.
Steve sent her a look of triumph and mimed zipping his lips before giving her a thumbs up. She couldn’t help the smile that it brought to her lips, even if she wasn’t excited. She hadn’t been to a party in over a year.
Ultimately, she had taken Steve’s suggestion and dressed up as Jennifer Beals in Flashdance. She simply had nothing else to throw together before the party. Of course, she had an off-the-shoulder sweatshirt and a pair of black leggings that she paired with grey leg warmers so she wouldn't freeze. The red heels were from her mother’s closet. It had taken her over thirty minutes to tease her hair into perfection and, she had to admit, she looked hot.
Evidently, she wasn’t the only person appreciating the outfit because she felt eyes on her as soon as she and Jonathan walked into the party. He, in pure Jonathan fashion, had chosen to not dress up. She had ribbed him about it when he came to pick her up, but at least he was getting out. Nancy would be happy about seeing him there, Jacqueline was sure.
Spotting the kitchen, she left Jonathan near the entrance, telling him she’d be right back and made her way over to grab a cup of whatever was in the punch bowl.
“Pure fuel,” the guy standing near the kitchen island said, more like slurred, in her direction.
“Great,” she replied, pouring her cup full and taking a sip. “Gross.” She slowly sipped it and scanned the room for Nancy and Steve. Not seeing them, she started walking back toward the front door to see if Jonathan was still there.
Before she could turn the corner into the entryway, Billy Hargrove was on top of her. He was wearing a leather jacket, open, with nothing on underneath it. That didn’t surprise her at all.
“Hey. Jacqueline, right?”
She glanced up at him, taking a larger gulp of the punch. “Yep,” she replied, letting her eyes travel the room before looking back at him.
“Nice costume,” he said, placing his hand on the wall behind her head. He smirked down at her. “Sexy.”
Jacqueline took a deep breath and stared at him, smiling sweetly. “Have you seen Steve?”
The smirk on his face immediately dropped and he watched her with surprisingly hard eyes.
“Why are you searching for him when you’ve got me right here?” He was immediately back to his smarmy way of trying to flirt. Licking his lips, he leaned in closer and lowered his voice. “Carol told me you used to have a thing with him, for him, whatever. I can show you a better time.”
Ice filled her veins for a moment as she thought about Carol telling her deepest secrets to some new guy, but before she could act on them in any way, an arm made its way around her waist and she was being pulled away from Billy. Looking up, she found Steve standing there.
“I was looking for you,” she said, relief filling her voice.
Steve took off his sunglasses and glared at Billy over her head. Then his attention fell to her and he took in her costume, the way his eyes moving over her body feeling completely different from a moment before when Billy had done the same thing. But this was less leering and more appreciating.
“Nice costume, Jac.” He smiled widely at her and tightened his arm around her, guiding her toward the hallway. “Was he bothering you?”
She shrugged and drank the rest of her punch. “Not really. Just hitting on me.” She hoped Steve didn’t hear anything Billy had been saying to her.
They stopped in the hall and he glanced at her cup before removing his arm. She hated herself for immediately missing the contact. He had just been trying to get her away from a jerk and here she was enjoying the way his warm arm felt around her body. Sometimes she had to remind herself that he had a girlfriend, one who was technically her only female friend.
“Where’s Nancy?” She asked suddenly.
“Bathroom. She’s already had a few too many cups of this.” He flicked her cup with his finger. “Be careful.”
“Okay, mom.”
Steve was unimpressed with her attitude but then the song changed and he was pulling her with him to the dance floor.
She hadn’t come to the party to dance, ironic given the costume, but it was hard to resist when Steve was there pressed up against her due to all the people in the living room. A few minutes into dancing, she spotted Nancy making her way through the crowd, cup in hand. She was walking a little wobbly.
“Jacqueline!” She yelled over the music. “I’m so happy you came!” Before she knew what was happening, Nancy was hugging her and Jacqueline laughed. Wow, this girl had never before been that excited to see her.
“You look cute,” Jacqueline replied, pulling away to get better see her costume. The white blouse really complimented her. “Lana suits you.”
“So do you.” Nancy grinned as she took a sip of the red concoction. “Steve’s idea?”
She could feel Steve’s gaze and the heat from his body on her as she and Nancy spoke. Instantly uncomfortable, she backed up into his chest and tilted her head back to look at him. There had to be a way out of this situation before it got to be too much.
“I’m getting a drink,” she shouted. “And I need to find Jonathan.”
Nancy perked up at that at the same time as Steve shook his head and started to say something about the alcohol, but she was already rushing off. After she filled her second cup, she made her way out to the backyard. Taking a deep breath, she leaned against the banister and watched the action around her. There was a keg out there and a crowd of people gathered around it as someone was doing a kegstand.
There was some sort of commotion going on inside, but as she turned to find out what it was, Tommy and Billy were passing by her.
Billy stopped in his tracks and grinned at her, nudging Tommy to get him to stop as well.
“See you’re alone again. Where’d your boy run off to?”
For a second she wondered if he meant Steve or Jonathan before he was stepping closer to her. He was so close to her now that she could smell the beer on his breath.
Scrunching up her nose, she averted her gaze and looked over at Tommy. He rolled his eyes and played with the shoulder of her shirt. She slapped his hand away. He always got handsy when he was drinking, but she would be damned if Carol caught wind of his actions.
“Why do you care?” She asked Billy. He threw up his hands defensively, a little beer sloshing out of the cup he was holding.
“Hey, just trying to figure out this town, get to know people.”
“Right. Well, it sounds like Carol has already filled you in on everything.”
As soon as the words were out of her lips, she turned and went back into the house to search for Jonathan. She felt bad for leaving him alone, especially when she had promised to stick with him so they wouldn’t be the awkward third and fourth wheels to Nancy and Steve. Putting her cup down on the kitchen counter, she rounded the corner and nearly bumped into him.
Jonathan’s face was flushed and she had never before seen him like this, at least not since his little brother went missing. There was concern on his face and bewilderment in his eyes.
“What’s going on?”
He looked like he had only just seen her for the first time that night when he gazed down at her. Her words snapped him out of his stupor.
“Nancy’s drunk. She’s in the bathroom. Won’t let me in, but Steve left.”
“He left?” She asked, confusion lacing her voice. She looked toward the front door like he would still be there, but it was already closed.
Jonathan was nodding. “Yeah. He asked if we would take her home.”
Jacqueline was still trying to figure out why Steve would leave in the middle of a party. Because Nancy was drunk? Surely there was a better reason than that.
“What did he say?”
“That was it.” Jonathan shrugged and started leading her toward the bathroom. “He seemed upset, though.”
Once Nancy let Jacqueline into the bathroom, she filled her in on all of the details of her possible break up with Steve. She was still drunk and parts of what she was saying were difficult to make out, but what Jacqueline gathered was that Steve had unintentionally caused her to spill her drink on herself. This had somehow led to an argument in the bathroom where Nancy told him their entire relationship, and that Steve, was bullshit.
Jacqueline’s eyes widened at this and her mouth opened as she tried to figure out what to say. It was completely unlike the Nancy that she had come to know. Sure, the girl had always been surprisingly open in her assessment of other people, but everyone had thought them to be completely, irrevocably in love.
“Nancy,” Jacqueline started softly, treading carefully, as she leaned against the sink. “Did you mean that?”
It was a stupid question, but she had to know what was going on.
Now it was Nancy’s turn to look like a fish, her mouth opening and closing a few times before she nodded her head. Jacqueline’s breath left her chest in one quick exhale. This was an extremely awkward situation and she had no idea what to do. Comfort the girl in front of her or go and find Steve and comfort him?
But Steve wasn’t there, so she leaned forward and placed a hand on Nancy’s shoulder. They stood like that for a long, tense moment before she finally decided to just go for it and wrapped her arm around the girl in a half-hug.
“Hey, Jonathan’s going to take you home, okay?” She asked gently, pulling back to observe Nancy. Her eyes were closed but she nodded and allowed Jacqueline to reach around her to unlock the bathroom door.
Jonathan was opening it as soon as the click sounded and she turned Nancy around toward him.
“You go take her home. I’m - I’m going to stick around here.”
Jonathan mouthed, “you sure?” before she nodded and walked around the pair.
It had been a long time since she’d enjoyed a party, but right now she thought it would be for the best if she stayed somewhere it was too loud to listen to herself think. Or do something stupid like go after her best friend when he had just potentially been dumped by the girl he loved.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she muttered to herself, heading to the kitchen for another cup of pure fuel.
Summary: Unable to reach Jacqueline, Steve’s protective mode is activated. (Ao3)
Characters/Pairings: Steve x OC (slow burn), The Party, Nancy, Billy, mentions of others
Word Count: 5,514
Warnings: mentions of panic, violence, general strange things, some language
A/N: Another long one and we’re almost to the end! 2-3 chapters left.
one / two / three / four / five / six / seven / eight / nine / ten / eleven / twelve / thirteen, part one / thirteen, part two / fourteen
They met up with everyone at the Byers’ house where they were filled in on everything that was going on. Will was comatose and Mrs. Byers’ boyfriend was dead, killed by some demo-dogs while they were in the lab. That information did nothing to settle Steve’s nerves or worries about Jacqueline. The worst part was waiting, but they were hoping to get some information from Will through this thing. They’d been able to find Will with the help of a psychic girl named Eleven in a similar way when he was in the Upside Down. Steve wondered if that could help find Jacqueline.
The kids, worried about Will and mourning Bob, sat at the kitchen table and Steve stood behind them like he was in protective mode. He’d become attached to those shitheads throughout the day.
Steve tuned Mike out as he talked about Bob, not because he didn’t care but because he didn’t want the same thing to happen to Jacqueline. It wasn’t until they started talking about Dart and an army that Steve snapped back into the conversation.
“But there’s an army now.”
“His army.”
Steve asked, “What do you mean?”
“His army,” Mike repeated. “Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too.”
Mike showed them all a picture Will had drawn of the Shadow Monster, the thing that got Will and infected him with some sort of virus. That virus connected him to the monsters and the Upside Down and the tunnels connecting to the Upside Down.
It was like a ray of hope suddenly came over all of them. Mike was talking faster, and Steve told him to slow down so he could try to figure it out. The boy slowed down just enough to make it clearer.
“Okay, so, the Shadow Monster’s inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will.”
“And so does Dart.”
He was starting to get it. If they could kill even one part of this thing, that would kill all the demo-dogs, and that would give Jacqueline time to get out, right?
Mike, Dustin, and Lucas were all on the same page, understanding everything that the others were saying. And even though some of it was going over Steve’s head, because these kids were way too smart for him, he thought he was getting enough to know that they needed to kill something to give her a chance.
After some more explanation, some that he got and more that he didn’t, they were talking about their Dungeons and Dragons game and how the entire town was going to be destroyed if this monster got its way. It all connected in their minds. He didn’t understand that either.
Again, they were told to wait for Hopper’s military backup, but Dustin and Mike were putting up a fight against the Chief. None of them knew what they were fighting, but one thing was clear - they all wanted to kill it.
Steve cornered Hopper as soon as he could get him alone. The man had barely said two words to him since they got there and it was pissing Steve off. He knew they were all busy, but Jacqueline had been missing long enough, and no one was doing anything about it.
“Hey,” he said as he met him in the hallway. “Did you talk to Jacqueline’s mom?”
Hopper nodded. “I didn’t tell her everything, told her we wouldn’t need a search party because I have some information about where she could be. She’s reluctant, but I don’t think she’ll try to find her herself. I’ll figure out what to tell her when we know what happened.”
Steve ran a hand through his hair. He hadn’t done anything to it that morning, so his fingers went through the locks, tugging on a few tangles.
“She’ll decide what to tell her mom, okay? She might not tell her any of it.”
“Steve,” Hopper began, getting his attention. “We have a lot going on right now. There’s not much we can do at this point.” The remorse was obvious on Hopper’s face, his forehead wrinkled as he frowned, but that didn’t make Steve accepting of his words.
“No, I’m going to find her and she’s going to be fine.” He glared at the older man. “You do what you have to do for Will, but she’s my priority and I’m getting her -” His words cut off at the sound of a shout from the main room. With that, Hopper pushed past him, leaving him standing there in the hallway.
Don’t give up. There was a voice in the back of his mind that sounded like Jacqueline’s, making his stomach drop, and he had to brace himself against the wall to keep himself upright.
Too much happened in the next hour for Steve to comprehend. A plan was made to get Will, or the Mind Flayer as they were now calling his virus, to give up information about where it was and how to destroy it. That meant they had to set the shed up to look like a place Will wouldn’t recognize so it wouldn’t know where they were.
While he was working to clean out the shed, Nancy walked over. She was quiet for a minute while she put some things in a box.
“You think you’ll find her?” She asked.
Why did everyone have to sound so doubtful?
“I know I will.”
“I understand that more than anyone, except Mrs. Byers, but you know what happened to Barb.”
“Shit, I know.” Steve sighed and lifted up a bundle of Christmas lights, remembering what Nancy and Jonathan had told him the year before about Mrs. Byers talking to Will through the lights. “I hate everything I said to you while you were looking for her and wanting to pretend it never happened.” Yeah, he definitely got it now.
“Thanks.”
“I feel like it’s all my fault, like I should’ve been with her and I know that’s crazy. She -”
“Never would have let you coddle her.”
“Coddle?”
“Baby her.”
Steve let out a harsh laugh. “Oh, yeah. She would never allow that.”
There was a pause in their conversation as they continued to clear the space. During that time, he thought about everything that happened with Nancy on Halloween and the next day and it was time for him to confront that. Plus, he saw the way Nancy was attached to Jonathan throughout all of this. It wasn’t like he didn’t love Nancy, but maybe they had both been unfair to each other during their relationship. They were both dealing with their own complicated feelings the entire time.
“Do you want to be with him?” He asked, glancing over at her.
Nancy looked at him, her mouth opening as she took a breath. An awkward question, but they needed to talk about it. Jacqueline told him to talk to Nancy and this time he was going to have a real conversation with her. Her mouth closed before she gave him a quick nod.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen there, maybe nothing, but I guess we’ll figure it out.” Her voice got lighter at the end, eyes lighting up slightly. It was a good look on her, a look he had been able to give her at one time, but he would learn to be happy for her and Jonathan. He could do that.
“Yeah, I guess you will.” He mustered as much of a smile as he could under the circumstances and Nancy reached over, squeezing his arm.
“Jacqueline’s a fighter.” Nancy’s eyes were watery as she spoke and she looked down while continuing to look through a box. “I wish I could help you, Steve, but I have to help Jonathan.”
“It’s okay, Nance. It’s okay.”
He nodded before picking up a box and walking back toward the house.
The solution to getting rid of the Mind Flayer came in the form of morse code from Will - CLOSE GATE. That was all they got out of him because the next second, he had realized where they were and the Mind Flayer sent demo-dogs to get them. They were all ready to fight them off. Then out of nowhere, a demo-dog flew through the window. It was dead.
A girl unknown to him stepped into the house and it was like a freaking family reunion. Mike knew her, Dustin knew her, Lucas knew her, even Hopper knew her. It took him a few minutes to figure out that she was the psychic girl he had heard about.
If she had been able to help get Will back, she could help with Jacqueline.
Steve watched her talk to Hopper for a few minutes, wanting nothing more than to talk to her about getting Jacqueline back. Before he could, Hopper and Eleven were leaving to go close the gate. Joyce, Jonathan, and Nancy left soon after with Will to go get the virus out of him.
“Where’s the gate?” He asked as he headed for the door. He turned back to the quiet room. “Let’s go!”
“Wait.” Dustin came over to him, looking more nervous than he had during this entire adventure.
“What? We don’t have time to talk.”
“If they close the gate, there will be no way to get Jacqueline out, so if she’s in there we have to get to her first. But the gate has to be closed.”
As Dustin spoke, Steve felt his hope dwindling. He tilted his head back and groaned. He was running out of time.
“But there has to be another way in,” he said desperately.
He began to pace the room as he thought it over and the kids tried to come up with their own solutions.
“The portal in the woods,” he said suddenly. “Nancy went in it last year. She just told me where it was.”
“Steve,” Dustin tried to his attention as he continued his pacing. “Steve!”
When he turned his attention to the boy, he could once again see the nervousness clearly on his face.
“It closed up.”
“But there’s another way.” Mike was up and running around the room as he spoke, barely giving Steve time to react. “All the tunnels connect and lead to the portal at the lab. If we can find a way to get into the tunnels, we can get into the Upside Down. Then we can find Jacqueline and after that we can torch the place to help Eleven. It hates heat.” Steve had to hand it to him; the kid had to be a genius. They all were evidently. But it was dangerous and he couldn’t lead four kids into the Upside Down.
“There’s no we here, okay? I’m gonna do this alone.”
The kids stared at him.
“But -” Mike started.
“No buts. I’ll drop you all off at one of your houses on the way.”
All four of them started talking, different conversations going on at once, and he couldn’t keep track of anything any of them were saying.
“Hey, hey, hey.” Clapping his hands, he got their attention. “Where can I get in?”
Mike started speeding around again until he found a location in one of the pictures of the tunnel system Will had drawn.
“Here. This is a connection spot, its hub. Get there and it should lead you anywhere inside.”
“Got it,” Steve said, studying the map. “Alright, let’s go. We’ll take -” He opened the door but stopped short. “We don’t have a car.”
He’d left his near the train tracks and Hopper had driven them all to the Byers’ house. And everyone else was gone. Slapping the door, he placed his hands flat on the wood and pressed his forehead against it. He was about to make a run for it, at least try to make it in time, but maybe he wouldn’t have to. The sound of a car’s engine was getting closer to the house. It was a miracle.
“It’s my brother. He can’t know I’m here,” Max said, worry evident in her voice. “He’ll kill me. He’ll kill us.”
Steve peeked out the window on the door and spotted the car coming to a stop. Billy Hargrove. He looked over at Max.
“That’s your brother?” He didn’t mean to sound judgemental, but the guy was a dick and Max wasn’t. It was obvious that she was scared, and Steve knew Billy couldn’t find out about what they were doing there, so he took over. “I’ll take care of this.”
Opening the door again, he stepped out onto the front porch just as Billy was walking that direction. He smirked when he saw Steve there.
“Am I dreaming or is that you, Harrington?” He asked, pulling a cigarette from his lips.
“Yeah, it’s me. Don’t cream your pants.” Steve walked down the porch steps and placed his hands on his hips in a stance he hoped was intimidating. Billy didn’t look threatened at all; he looked amused more than anything. He didn’t have time for this, but Max was terrified and he just needed to say enough to get Billy to leave. Then he could figure out how to get to the Upside Down.
“What are you doing here, amigo?”
“I could ask you the same thing, amigo.” Steve grimaced slightly at calling the guy a friend, folding his arms in front of him. Just being close to the guy had him feeling uncomfortable.
“Figured you’d be chasing after one of your girls, but instead I find you at Byers’ house. That’s a little odd.”
“There’s nothing here for you, Billy.”
“Maybe, but you know I’m new here. I need you to fill me in on some things.” He paused and took a step closer. “What’s up with you and Jacqueline anyway? Carol told me that you’ve been best friends since middle school, blah blah blah, but I swear you’ve ruined her for other guys.”
Steve’s eyes flashed angrily at the fact that Billy had the nerve to mention Jacqueline, and the way he was talking. Like he had a thing for her or something.
“You need to go,” he said simply.
“Hit a nerve, alright.” Licking his bottom lip, Billy backed up with his hands raised before stopping. “On second thought, could you give me her number? I’d really like to finish what we started at the party.”
Those words were enough to take Steve off guard. He paused as his mind went through Billy’s words, trying to decipher their meaning and what he wanted with Jacqueline, but Billy just kept talking. He smirked like he always did, like everything was amusing.
“I’m looking for my step sister. Little birdy told me she was here.”
“Huh, that’s weird. I don’t know her.”
“Small, redhead, bit of a bitch.”
Steve shook his head. “She’s not here.”
Billy nodded, and for a second Steve thought he was going to leave this time until he asked, “Then who’s that?”
Billy pointed to the window and Steve turned to see, noticing the kids ducking out of view. Well shit. He began looking back at Billy before the guy was pushing him down and kicking him in the side. There was something seriously messed up with this guy. No wonder Max was scared. Just like the day before, Steve scrambled up and rushed into the house. Billy already had Lucas, holding him up by his shirt and all of the kids looked horrified.
“You’re dead, Sinclair.”
Over the past couple of years, Steve had been in way too many fights. But right now, he didn’t care about himself. This kid had done nothing wrong. Steve grabbed Billy’s shoulder and roughly turned him.
“No, you are,” he growled at the taller guy. Pulling his arm back, Steve punched Billy in the face. It phased Billy for a moment, but then he laughed. He sounded deranged.
“Looks like you got some fire in you after all. I’ve been waiting to meet this King Steve everybody’s been telling me so much about.”
Steve pushed a hand through his hair as Billy stepped closer. Putting a finger to Billy’s chest, he shoved him. “Get out.” They stared at each other and Steve was able to duck when Billy tried to punch him, throwing and connecting a couple punches of his own. The kids were yelling, panicked voices filling the room, though some of what he could hear sounded almost excited by the fight. Until he’d backed him up into the kitchen and Billy smashed a plate on his head. His vision immediately went a little out of focus, but he was able to keep himself upright for a moment. But, by then, even the smallest amount of hesitation was enough to allow Billy to deliver a headbutt that knocked Steve to the floor.
There wasn’t any fight left in him as Billy overpowered him, holding him against the floor as he started punching him repeatedly in the face. Steve couldn’t hear much of anything, a jumble of voices yelling and the sound Billy’s knuckles cracking against his face. There was no way for him to keep track of how many times Billy hit him before everything went black.
He woke up in a cramped space. It took him five seconds to open his eyes, gaze landing on Mike. For a moment he thought it was Nancy, but that didn’t make sense. Then there was Dustin on his other side. So, he was crammed somewhere between the two boys, and whatever they were in was moving. His head was pounding, it hurt to open his mouth, the edge of his lips tugging when he went to talk. Despite the painful feeling going through his entire body, he realized that they were in a car. But where had they gotten a car? Who was driving? Was it Billy? At that thought, he began to sit up.
“Hey, buddy. Shh. It’s okay. You put up a good fight. He kicked your ass, but you put up a good fight.” The sound of Dustin talking was warbled, making him want to close his eyes again and go back to sleep, but that was when he heard Lucas’ voice from the front seat.
Was he giving someone directions? Where were they going?
“What’s going on?”
None of it made sense until he noticed the person in the driver’s seat.
Max.
Max was driving!
“Oh my god.” Steve tried to push himself against the backseat.
The three young boys argued about this while Steve tried to get his bearings and stop the dizziness he was feeling. Naturally, he began yelling out for her to slow down and stop the car. Dustin told them that he would be cool about it, according to Mike’s accusing, but Steve was far from cool. They were going to die!
“Everybody shut up!” Max yelled from the front, speeding up. “I’m trying to focus!”
“What happened? Whose car is this?” Steve’s voice came out as a shout, pitch rising with every word. This earned an exasperated look from Mike. Dustin jumped to explain.
“You missed it, man. You know that stuff they were using to keep Will asleep? Well, Max stabbed Billy with it!” Dustin grinned down at him. His eyes were bright and excited, and it made Steve think of Jacqueline when she was that animated.
Steve shook his head to clear it and then groaned at the pain it caused. “She what? Shit. She didn’t kill him, did she?” That was the last thing they needed - a dead guy on their hands, asshole or not.
“Nah, he’s fine.”
“Sleeping like a baby,” Mike added. Steve looked over at him again before focusing on the two kids up front, in the still moving vehicle.
“Oh. So this is Billy’s car.” He let out a dry laugh. Now they had stolen a car. “Where the hell are we going?”
Lucas looked between the front seats and said, “To the tunnels.” He didn’t wait for a reaction, just looked back at the map and called for Max to make a turn. She did, and it was a hard left, hitting a mailbox and speeding down the narrow road. Lucas’ screams joined Steve’s as she almost missed hitting the brakes as they reached a huge hole in the ground.
The kids hopped out of the car, leaving Steve to fall out. His legs were shaking, breathing still erratic due to the stress of the ride, and there was no way those kids were going down in the tunnels.
“Guys.” He balanced himself on the car’s open door. “No.” They were all gathering their gear from earlier in the night and they were grabbing goggles and bandanas from the trunk. “Where do you think you’re going?”
They ignored him.
“You are not going down there. I made myself clear!”
“Steve!” Dustin yelled. “You’re upset, I get it, but the bottom line is, a party member requires assistance and it is our duty to provide that assistance. Now I know you want to keep us safe, so keep us safe.” Dustin handed him his backpack, bat sticking out. “We can't let our most valuable players down. Eleven is ours right now.”
Steve sighed, knowing the kid was right, even if he didn’t want them to be involved in this. He could go down there himself, but he knew that he had a better chance of doing his job with Dustin, Mike, Lucas, and Max by his side.
“And Jacqueline is your most valuable player, right?”
For the second time that night, looking at Dustin made him think of Jacqueline, this time their similar determination. He nodded at him.
“Yeah. She’s gonna like you.”
Dustin smiled. Steve could see it even through the bandana the boy had wrapped around his mouth. Shaking his head, he put the backpack on. It was a good thing he had enough adrenaline to make it down into those tunnels.
Jacqueline was weak and cold. Her fingers were numb as she walked, dragging her hands along the wall for any sign of an opening. It was too dark to see much in front of her. She didn’t know how much time had passed since she had been pulled into this place, but it had been long enough that the feeling of hunger had turned into a dull ache in her stomach and her throat burned every time she swallowed.
She didn’t know how little Will had made it for as long as he had, but that thought kept her going. If he could be that resilient, so could she.
And she knew that Steve was looking for her.
The Upside Down was a bizarre place. At times she could hear him, could hear other people, and she tried her hardest to yell out for them. She didn’t think they ever heard her, but she was trying.
There wasn’t much time for her left. There was a sort of electricity in the air, mingling with the cold air, like there was something brewing around her. She pushed at the wall again, trying to push her hands through it to the other side. Nothing. Groaning, she stopped in her tracks and closed her eyes for just a moment. She had tried everywhere she could get to, the library, other parts of town square, the woods. At some point, she had fallen and found herself in what appeared to be a cave, or a tunnel system. Every time she made a turn, it looked like she was in the same spot, but she couldn’t figure out where it all led. All she knew was that it was freezing and dark.
She didn’t want to give up, but she was tired. Pulling her hands into her sleeves, she wrapped her arms around her middle. If she could just rest for a minute.
“Help! Help! Help!”
Jacqueline’s eyes popped open and she gasped, looking around desperately for the source of the voice she was hearing. She couldn’t be sure that it wasn’t outside, so she hurried over to the wall, banging on it.
“Hey!” She yelled hoarsely, voice cracking. “Hey!”
The screaming continued and she slid down the wall, desperately hitting it. Her hands were already bruised and sore, but she kept on because she didn’t have any other options. It was silent for a moment. Her breath caught in her chest, hoping that meant that whoever was there somehow heard her. But it was too quiet. No one was there.
Her brain was playing tricks on her now. It made sense. She hadn’t slept in days, so she was hallucinating. She’d probably imagined all of the voices she heard.
Grabbing her head, she screamed as loud as she could. It wasn’t that loud thanks to the dryness of her throat, but if someone was there, maybe they would hear her. If not, maybe she’d pass out from screaming and not have to deal with any of this anymore.
“Alright, Wheeler. Think we found your hub.”
If her mind was playing tricks on her this time, fine. As long as she felt this hope swelling in her chest as she died.
“Steve.” She pushed herself up and clambered in the direction of his voice. “Steve!”
“Guys, shut up. Did you hear that?”
“Steve!”
“Jac?”
She called out his name again.
“Where are you?” He yelled. She could see lights bouncing off of the walls and a few other voices joining his as they got closer to one another. It was finally happening. “I’m coming!”
She tripped and fell forward, but this time she didn’t hit the floor. Two arms wrapped around her and she tilted her head back to see Steve looking down at her. His face was covered in a pair of goggles and a bandana, but there was no mistaking it was him.
“I knew I’d find you.”
Steve pulled her up to stand and she leaned against him for support, gripping onto his jacket sleeves. “I knew you were looking.”
“Are you okay?” His hands were running over her shoulders and up her neck, cupping her face in his hands. She closed her eyes and nodded, pushing herself closer to him for warmth.
“I’m cold.”
Her words snapped him out of his action and he turned to talk to someone else. That was when Jacqueline looked at the people with him. Kids? They must have been who she heard.
“Let’s drench it,” one of them said.
“Drench it? Drench what?”
“We have to torch this place,” Steve said. “It’s a long story, but I’ll tell you when we’re out.” He still held onto her and she stood shakily, glancing as the kids started spraying gasoline on the walls and wetting the floor with it. Steve walked her over to another area and made sure she was okay to stand on her own before he joined the rest of the group. With the bandanas and goggles, it took her a moment to recognize the kids, and she didn’t know who the redheaded one was, but she had seen the other three at the Byers’ house. They were Will’s friends. But where was Will?
“Hey,” she said, swallowing roughly to dampen her throat. “Where’s Will?”
They all turned to her and Mike said, “He’s sick. That’s why we’re here with Steve. There’s another monster and we’re gonna kill them.”
“Oh. Well, good. Kill it.”
When they were finished prepping the tunnels, the group came over to where she and Mike were and Steve pushed them all behind him before taking a lighter out of his pocket.
“Alright. You guys ready?”
“Ready,” the kids replied. Jacqueline nodded. She couldn’t see Steve’s eyes, but she could feel him looking at her, and she reached forward to hold onto his shoulder.
“Light her up,” Dustin said.
“I’m in such deep shit,” Steve said as he flicked his lighter open and lit it, tossing it into the middle of the tunnel. The ground was engulfed in flames and resulted in a loud screeching sound as the tunnels were burned.
“Let’s go! Let’s go!” Steve and the kids moved to run and he wrapped an arm around her waist, helping to push her forward toward the exit. She still had enough energy left in her to walk quickly, but she wouldn’t be able to run without him.
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.” Jacqueline and Dustin were saying at the same time. The next moment, Mike was tripping over one of the vines and screaming for help.
“Mike!” Dustin and Steve ran to him as the thing wrapped around Mike’s leg, Steve repeatedly slamming his bat into it until it let go of Mike. How she had survived down there without that ever happening to her, Jacqueline didn’t know.
Before they made it much farther, a loud screeching signaled that there was a monster behind them.
“Holy shit!” She breathed out, pushing one of the kids behind her. Steve stepped toward it before Dustin called it by the name Dart. The other kids and Steve were shouting for him to get away from the thing.
“Trust me, please,” he told them before approaching it. “Hey. It’s me, it’s me. It’s your friend, it’s Dustin.”
Jacqueline watched with wide eyes as he talked to it and fed Dart candy bars. This was like his pet or something? She met eyes with Steve and gave him a confused look. “Really?” She whispered. She had a lot of questions.
Once they were able to pass Dart, it looked like they had a straight shot to the exit, but then the floor started to rumble. The redheaded girl fell to the ground with the shake and Jacqueline reached forward, helping her up. She barely had any strength herself, but she wasn’t going to let the younger girl get caught up in the vines the way Mike had.
“Are you okay?” She asked. The girl nodded.
“What was that?” The girl said when the sound of more screeching and roaring reached them.
“They’re coming!” Mike said. “Run! Run!”
Steve tugged her along and Jacqueline ran as hard as her legs would allow to the rope. The younger girl was the first one up, followed by Lucas and Mike. Steve called up for the kids to pull Jacqueline up with the rope.
“No, let Dustin go,” She said, but both boys refused and she grabbed onto the rope, gripping it tightly with her feet as the other three pulled her up.
“Throw it back down!” Steve said. Once Jacqueline was up, Lucas tossed it back and she laid out on the ground, looking up at the star-filled sky. It was the best thing she’d seen in days. A few seconds later, the girl came over and sat down with her, observing her face.
“Are you alright?” She asked.
“Yes, I am now.”
“I’m Max,” she said.
“Jac.”
She took a few deep breaths and rubbed her hands together. It was still cold, she was still freezing, but it was better than being down there. But where were Steve and Dustin? She rolled her head to watch the hole and that was when the boys started yelling down for them.
“What’s wrong?” She asked, trying to push herself up with her arms and failing.
“Go,” Steve said, motioning for Dustin to go to the rope. As soon as his hands wrapped around it, the demo-dogs came into sight, running in their direction and coming at high speed.
“Oh, shit. Oh, shit.” Dustin’s eyes widened beneath his goggles and Steve lifted up his bat, ready to take these things out, or at least try.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered, not sure if he wanted Dustin to hear the words. Steve was sure they were going to be eaten alive. On the one hand, he was just relieved that Jacqueline was okay. On the other, Dustin was still down in the tunnels with him.
The impact never came. They weren’t being torn apart. The demo-dogs were running past them. A huge grin formed on Dustin’s face and Steve once again pushed him to the rope. Dustin went up and then Steve climbed out, taking off his gear and moving to where Jacqueline was laying on the ground. Max was on her knees next to her. His stomach sank, thinking something was wrong with her judging by the worry on Max’s face. But when she saw him, Max smiled and said something to Jacqueline.
He reached them and Max moved so he could take her spot. Placing Jacqueline’s head in his lap, he was able to get a good look at her. Her face was pale and her lips had a blue tint to them, but she was alive. She was okay.
“Hey,” he said, watching her eyes open at his voice. “How you doing?”
“I’ve been better.” Her voice was tired. She reached up and ran a finger across his chin. “Your face looks terrible.”
Summary: It was difficult being this vulnerable in front of someone, but things were different with Steve. (Ao3)
Characters/Pairings: Steve x OC (slow burn), mention of others
Word Count: 2,895
Warning: light angst, nightmares, panic, Jacqueline and Steve being ridiculously touchy-feely considering they’re just friends
A/N: I made a moodboard and playlist for this fic, so please check it out! Just a couple more chapters left. It was supposed to be 1, but there’s a lot to include before this is all over. I do not own Stranger Things, any of its characters, or dialogue. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
one / two / three / four / five / six / seven / eight / nine / ten / eleven / twelve / thirteen, part one / thirteen, part two / fourteen
Jacqueline was discharged from the hospital two days later. Physically, she was fine. Going home was a huge relief, but surprisingly all she wanted to do was sleep. But coming home brought on the nightmares.
Each one started happily, but suddenly it turned into a terror. One second she was running and laughing and the next she was falling down into the tunnels. It was a sick and twisted version of Alice in Wonderland.
She would wake up with either a silent scream stuck in her throat or tears streaming down her face. It was impossible to sleep peacefully after that if she was able to fall asleep again at all. The worst part was waking up alone. It was important to Jacqueline that her mom never knew the extent of the effects of the Upside Down. It was hard enough for the woman to learn where her daughter was for days when they finally sat down and Jacqueline explained the last year, so she wasn’t going to burden her.
Steve wasn’t an option. Last year, she could walk to his house in the middle of the night, but now she was afraid to go out alone. There was a part of her that felt like something was still there. What, she didn’t know, but she couldn’t shake the feeling.
So she suffered silently, sneaking in short naps after school and wearing extra concealer under her eyes.
That worked for a while on most people. It worked on her teachers, classmates, even her mom, but Steve was not most people.
One day, when he was at her house after school, Jacqueline accidentally fell asleep on the couch. They weren’t watching the TV, but it provided the perfect white noise in the background while Steve talked about “The Kids.” It was sweet the way he was growing attached to them in the week after the Dart fiasco and the tunnels. He was hanging out with them all the time and brought them over so they could see with their own eyes that she was okay. He was in the middle of a story about how Max and Eleven were having difficulties being friends when she drifted off. It wasn’t intentional. Steve’s voice mixing with the hum of the TV was the ideal combination to fill her with the warmth necessary to fall asleep.
Just like that, she was thrust into her new norm.
Someone was chasing her, but she couldn’t see their face, and she wasn’t scared of them. She was happy. The sun was bright and warm on her skin and then it wasn’t. She was falling, falling, falling into the black of the tunnels and shivering at the sudden change of temperature.
As soon as she hit the ground, she knew something was coming, but there was no way to get out. She ran. Stumbling around, she tried to make her way through the tunnels looking for an exit. The rope! If she could get to it, she would be able to climb out. She was gasping for breath and couldn’t see a thing, but she found it with her hands. Grabbing it, she started to climb. Light surrounded her as she moved up and she realized that it wasn’t a rope at all. “No!” She tried to jump down off of the vine. It wrapped around her wrist as other vines came out of nowhere to grasp hold of her and pull her down. “No! Help!” They were taking her straight into the Demogorgon’s waiting, open mouth.
With a yelp, she woke up. Her eyes opened and she could feel hands on her, but it took a few seconds to focus on her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was the TV, the second was Steve’s voice.
“Hey. Hey, Jac, look at me.”
She couldn’t breathe. Something was around her throat. A whimper escaped her throat and she brought her hands up to her neck. There was nothing there. Her wide eyes met Steve’s concerned ones as he pulled her up to sit.
“You’re okay. You’re home.”
She was still breathing hard, taking in shallow breaths, but his words snapped her out of the haze of the nightmare.
She was okay.
She was home.
Steve’s hands moved from her shoulders to her cheeks and he wiped away the tears she didn’t know were on her skin. Closing her eyes, she focused on catching her breath.
“Better?” Steve asked. He was still in the same place in front of her when she opened her eyes.
“Yeah. It wasn’t real.”
“No, it wasn’t.” It was ridiculous that freaking out in front of him embarrassed her. There was no judgment on his face, though. He smoothed her hair back and told her he’d go get her some water. While she waited, she gave herself a second to breathe deeply. She was okay.
It was difficult being this vulnerable in front of someone, but things were different with Steve. He was there when she started her period for the first time and neither of them knew what was happening. They thought she was dying until she remembered a book her mom bought for her 12th birthday. Once they figured it out, it was obvious that it grossed him out, but he’d played it off the only way a thirteen-year-old boy could by not meeting her eye for a couple of days. After that, she figured there was nothing Steve couldn’t handle when it came to her.
“I didn’t think you were sleeping,” he said, moving to sit next to her, handing her the glass. One of his hands found her arm. “You almost fell asleep in English today.”
“I did not,” she muttered before taking a sip of water. “It’s just boring.”
“It’s one of your favorites.” He moved his hand from her arm to wrap it around her shoulders. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“What was I supposed to say? It’s not like you can be here all the time.”
“I can camp out in your room.”
Jacqueline let out a breath that sounded like a laugh. Fitting her head into the crook of his shoulder, she sighed.
“I’ll be okay. They’ll go away soon.” Her other nightmares were gone, replaced by teenage angst. Almost as scary, but less life-threatening. But, now that she slept for all of ten minutes, she was more exhausted than before. “Steve?”
He made a noise of acknowledgment.
“Will you take a nap with me?” She asked quietly.
It was weird. They’d slept in the same bed several times over the last six years of knowing each other, at the very least in the same room, but this time felt different. There was a desperation in her voice like she needed him. There was also a longing there that was new to him.
Steve wordlessly stood from the couch and took her hand, leading her to her own room. Instead of Jacqueline’s usual routine of pulling down the comforter and throwing some of the pillows to the floor, she only put the glass down and kicked off her shoes before laying down on the made bed. For once, he wasn’t sure what to do. Climb in behind her or sit down on the bed? Was he just supposed to guard her while she slept?
Jacqueline looked at him with a familiar impatience on her face. He took off his own shoes and settled behind her, keeping a little space between their bodies. She reached back and blindly grabbed his arm, tugging him closer. It didn’t escape his notice how well they molded together. Wrapping his arm around her, he tucked his fingers under her body, holding her back snug to his front.
There was nothing particularly sexual about it (well, a little, but that was a given), but it felt right. She was safe and she was home.
She was with him.
He couldn’t stand the thought of her being anywhere else.
When Jacqueline woke up, Steve was gone which was a surprise. That was the last thing she expected after his reaction to her nightmares. But when she rolled over, he was sitting against the headboard with one of the books Jonathan brought her in his hands. It was clear he was only flipping through the pages.
“What time is it?” She asked, disoriented. The lamp next to her bed was on, but otherwise, she couldn’t tell if it was even the same day. She moved to her back and stretched out, closing her eyes again. It took her a few moments to adjust to being awake, but when she did, she turned to see the sky was dark through her bedroom window.
“It’s like 6,” he answered before putting the book back and moving to mirror her. “Did you have any nightmares?”
She shook her head in response. It wasn’t the most refreshing nap, but it was uninterrupted sleep. Mostly, she couldn’t believe she slept for 2 hours. She couldn’t be sure if it was Steve’s presence or she was too exhausted to not give into sleep, but it could be both.
“No, it was fine. I feel better.”
When she opened her eyes and looked at him, Steve was watching her with a look she couldn’t decipher.
“What?”
“I was just thinking,” he said and she raised an eyebrow.
“You, thinking?”
“First of all, rude. Second, yeah. I was thinking about how nervous I was when you were missing, but now I feel relieved.” He shook his head, looking unhappy with his choice of words. “It’s more than that, though. I’m thankful that you’re home, like in a way I didn’t know was possible.”
“Now you know what to say at Thanksgiving,” she said softly, trying and failing to ignore the butterflies suddenly erupting in her stomach. She was probably reading too much into his words, but she could have sworn there was something else behind his words.
Steve rolled his eyes, but he was smiling, and somehow that created even more tension in her body. Jacqueline stretched again in the hopes of easing it. He reached forward and tugged a strand of her hair. Their proximity did nothing to help her, but she couldn’t exactly complain about it.
“I am thankful for you,” he said, tone matching his from moments before, and she almost turned away to avoid looking at him.
“I’m thankful for you, too.” She swatted his hand away half-heartedly before turning her arm and placing her wrist on her forehead pretending to swoon. “My hero.”
“Alright, I’m leaving.” Steve pushed himself up and Jacqueline sat on the edge of the bed, legs dangling. She laughed when she spotted the fake annoyance on his face. Yes, she was joking, but she was sure that she wouldn’t have made it out of the tunnels without him and his new group of buddies.
“Thanks for staying.” She didn’t know what else to say that wasn’t too serious or wouldn’t take them down a new path, so she leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. His skin was warm and comforting and she closed her eyes for a moment as she leaned into him.
Steve’s heart was doing all sorts of flippy shit and it was getting more obvious as the night went on. He didn’t want to leave. It felt like he was going to make a wrong move and Jacqueline would be gone again. But, more than that, he just wanted to be there with her all night and hear her voice. They could lay on her bed and he’d know she was really there.
Then she kissed his cheek, leaving him confused. The action itself wasn’t that unusual, but it felt like this time there was a meaning behind it. He just didn’t know what she was trying to tell him.
The room was silent as Jacqueline got up and moved around her room, arranging this and fixing that. Her room was already clean so he knew she was nervous. Knowing her for six years meant he knew most of her habits, so he wasn’t too surprised that she was suddenly doing this after opening up to him so much. If either of them was the emotional one, it was Steve.
But sometimes he just couldn’t take it, so he walked over and took a candle from her, putting it back in its place.
“What’s wrong?”
Jacqueline looked up at him like she forgot he was there before her eyes softened. She brought a hand up to massage between her eyes.
“What if I never sleep well again? I feel kind of hazy all the time already.”
“Hey, it’ll be fine. Your other nightmares went away, remember? You said it yourself. They always get better.”
“Look what happened to Will, Steve. There could something else waiting for me.”
“No!” He gripped her shoulders and forced her to meet his gaze. “That won’t happen because I won’t let it. You’ve seen me with that bat. All monsters should be scared of me.”
Jacqueline relaxed under his hands and looked at his face. One look at her and he knew what she was thinking. Yeah, he was still bruised up and a little swollen from Billy’s beating, but he still meant every word he said. He would go down fighting for her.
“I believe you,” she said, eyes moving from his cheek to his lips and back to his eyes. Hers were so sincere. There was something else there in her eyes that caused his breath to catch in his throat.
“So, that’s the end of that,” he said after, still trying to figure out that look in her eyes. “You’ll be back to normal soon.”
He was still holding her arms and he released her when he realized that she might want to actually be able to move, but she stayed rooted to her spot.
“What about you? Will you be back to normal soon?” She swallowed. “I mean, with Nancy.”
It was the first time either of them brought up Nancy since the day she and Jonathan were at the hospital when he got there. Now that she started the conversation, he couldn’t help but deflate a bit.
He moved back to her bed.
“I guess I’m already feeling a little better, and I know I shouldn’t be, but I don’t know. It’s not that I’m over it, but I think I get why we didn’t work. Maybe we weren’t meant to.” He ran a hand through his hair. Jacqueline walked back over and grabbed his hand, holding it between hers. She knew his habits, too, it seemed.
“Why?”
“She loves someone else and I - I wasn’t all in like I thought I was.”
Jacqueline watched him with confusion written all over her face. He turned his eyes to her ceiling as he thought about what he wanted to tell her. Was he ready to tell her about all of his conflicting and complex feelings yet? He’d almost done it once before. “How were you not all in?”
“Maybe I wasn’t ready to, ugh.” He tried to move his hand to head again, only to feel her holding him still. “I wasn’t ready to open up a certain part of my heart for her.”
Jacqueline let go of his hand then and he watched her eyes light up.
“Wow. That was oddly poetic.”
“Shut up.” He ran his hands through his hair, but this time it was to fix the mess it became between sleep and his nervousness. “Let’s talk about something else.”
She got back on the bed and sat cross-legged while he turned his body, dropping down on the bed with his hand propping up his head.
“What were you saying earlier about El and Max? I didn’t catch all of it.”
“Max is having trouble fitting into the group. I don’t think El likes having her around.”
“She’s jealous?”
“I think. She barely talks to Max and, when she does, she’s kind of snappy. Sometimes Max just gets up and leaves.”
Jacqueline raised her eyebrows and fiddled with a loose thread on her jeans. “I can relate,” she murmured, probably more to herself than him.
“Could you talk to her? Just, you know, find out if she’s okay and tell her how you dealt with all that.”
“I highly doubt my friendship with Carol and Nicole is a good example of loving female bonding.” She shrugged. “We were never that close.”
“But, still, you know what it’s like to be a girl. I don’t.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to her.”
“Thanks.”
“It’s fine, but I can’t promise anything will change, and I’d rather not confront El.”
“She might throw something at you with her mind.” His eyes widened and Jacqueline laughed, pushing his shoulder gently. He held the comforter to keep from falling off the bed.
“Sorry!” Her laugh got louder as she grabbed his arm, tugging him toward her. He kept himself from falling on top of her and settled back down, his head nudging her knee. “If you take me with you to hang out with The Kids, I’ll talk to Max.”
“You got it,” he whispered, once again trying to calm the beating of his heart. As much as he told himself that it was from almost falling, he knew it wasn’t true. It was all Jacqueline.
Summary: “I heard all about the bat incident.” This time, she smirked at the younger girl, but she was still concerned. Hearing that Billy had put his hands on her had her wanting to drive to his house now and recreate that moment with a different outcome. “You should’ve hit him for real.” (Ao3)
Characters/Pairings: Steve x OC (slow burn), Max, Billy
Word Count: 2,008
Warnings: mentions of physical abuse and violence, more excessively touchy feely Steve x Jacqueline
A/N: This is something I wrote for Chapter Thirteen. At the time, I felt that it didn’t add much to that particular chapter, but I do think it has some importance. It’s set right after the events of Chapter Thirteen and I’ve tilted it Part Two of that chapter for that reason. This is for @nightybreeze!
one / two / three / four / five / six / seven / eight / nine / ten / eleven / twelve / thirteen, part one / thirteen, part two / fourteen
“Billy’s staring at you again,” Steve muttered to Jacqueline and she rolled her eyes, refusing to look at either boy. They were sitting in Steve’s car before going into the school while she tried to finish her homework. She miraculously fell asleep before she could get to it, so she spent the drive to school sloppily jotting down her answers.
“He’s not.”
He was. The past week, she’d been hanging out with Max more often and it undoubtedly caught Billy’s attention. Jacqueline found him watching her more times that she was comfortable with in the hallways, but he hadn’t approached her since the day he mentioned the alien abduction rumor to her. (That one still amused her.) She didn’t like it, but she was too concerned about Max’s safety to care what he had on his mind when he looked at her.
Steve made a sound deep in his throat which she knew meant he was trying not to argue with her, so she turned her attention to him.
“Let him stare.” Jacqueline shrugged and forced herself not to reach forward and smooth the crease of his eyebrows. “You don’t see me staring back, do you?”
Thankfully all of Steve’s bruises and cuts were healed, but she could still clearly see the damage when she thought about it. And Max’s words about him from a few days earlier unnerved her. Billy had some serious anger management issues.
“He what?” Jacqueline raised her voice, causing Max to jump slightly. “Sorry.” She lowered her voice as she glanced down at Max’s arms, looking for any sign of bruising.
The girl rubbed one of her wrists, her left one, and Jacqueline immediately tensed.
“He doesn’t mess with me anymore, I swear,” Max said.
“I heard all about the bat incident.” This time, she smirked at the younger girl, but she was still concerned. Hearing that Billy had put his hands on her had her wanting to drive to his house now and recreate that moment with a different outcome. “You should’ve hit him for real.”
Max shrugged response and Jacqueline thought about her own experience in Billy’s car. Not that she was going to mention it to Max, she barely wanted to think about her drunken lapse in judgement, but she knew firsthand how forceful he could be. Max was only thirteen. Jacqueline wasn’t much bigger than the girl, but it felt wrong to turn a blind eye to that sort of abuse, even if it wasn’t occurring anymore. She didn’t know it couldn’t pick up again under the right circumstances.
“Do you - why do you think he does that?” Jacqueline asked, hoping that Max didn’t think she was blaming her for anything. “Not that he should do any of that. I just mean, is there something going on that sets him off?”
Now Max looked down at her hands and shrugged once again.
“My stepdad.”
“What do you mean?”
“He yells a lot, and it’s always at Billy. It could be about anything.” Max’s eyes met hers. “I think my mom is scared of Neil, too.”
Jacqueline felt her stomach sink at the words.
“Has he, your step dad, ever yelled at you?”
Max shook her head, but said, “Not really. He’s started a couple of times, but not when my mom’s around, and Billy gets most of it.”
Jacqueline wasn’t the most physically affectionate person, except for when it came to Steve, and that was a complicated situation, but she couldn’t help but reach forward and wrap her fingers around one of Max’s smaller hands.
“Are you safe?”
“I’m fine. Billy’s not bothering me, I swear, Jacqueline.”
“And your step dad?”
“I don’t think he would touch me if he wants to keep my mom around.”
The words did little to calm her fears, but Jacqueline nodded and squeezed Max’s hand.
That led to where she was with Steve now, still in his car and ignoring Billy’s presence across the parking lot.
“I’m going to tell you something, and you have to swear not to do anything stupid.”
“That doesn’t give me a lot of options.” Jacqueline snorted and shook her head, watching Steve’s expression turn embarrassed. “That’s not what I meant.”
“I know.” She closed her textbook and turned in the passenger seat to face him fully. “It’s just, Max said something the other day that worried me.”
Without another word, Steve visibly tensed up and Jacqueline did touch him this time, grasping his shoulder in a soft grip.
“Let me talk before you react,” she said. All she got in response was a nod, though his jaw clenched. “I was talking to Max the other night when I took her home. We were talking about the incident at the Byers’ house.”
Again, Steve stiffened and she moved her hand up to his neck, not rubbing her thumb against his skin but holding it there on his pulse. Her other fingers rested on the back of his neck. It was an intimate hold, and she knew it, but he relaxed under her touch, so that was enough reason for her to do it.
“She told me he used to grab her wrist and yell at her and break her things. He hasn’t since that night, she swears, but it sounds like his dad is not a good guy.”
“Tree, meet apple,” Steve murmured and she nodded in agreement.
“I think his dad is abusing him,” she said. Steve turned his eyes to her face and immediately started shaking his head.
“No, don’t you do anything stupid.”
“I just want to make sure she’s safe, Steve,” Jacqueline said softly. “I already have enough trouble sleeping without adding this on top of it.”
That sounded selfish, and she truly was doing it for Max’s wellbeing, but her sleeping had been rough the past couple nights since talking to Max about Billy.
“Then let me take care of it.”
“He tried to kill you.” She sighed. “I’m going to talk to him, but I’ll do it here where he can’t do anything unless he wants to make a huge scene.” It wasn’t like she was asking his permission to talk to Billy, but she felt it necessary that someone knew what she was planning, and why. “And, besides, I’m not afraid of him.”
Removing her hand from his neck, she smiled over at him before putting her book into her backpack.
“You never did tell me why you slapped him,” Steve said and she glanced at him over her shoulder.
“That’s a story for another time, trust me.”
Before he could try to get any information out of her, she opened the door and stepped out of the BMW. Billy was still leaning against his car with his attention now on a blonde sitting on the hood. Steve came around and stopped in front of her, effectively blocking Billy from her view.
“I’m doing this for Max,” she said. She noted the way he lifted his hand before dropping it down to his side.
“Be careful.”
“I always am.” Placing her bag on her shoulder, she turned to walk to the front entrance. All she could hear behind her was Steve’s sarcastic laugh.
Throughout the rest of the day, Jacqueline would turn around anytime she was in the hall and, sure enough, there was Billy Hargrove watching her. She didn’t know what he was thinking. It wasn’t until the end of the day that she was able to get away from Steve or Nancy or Jonathan long enough - if she didn’t know any better, she would have believed that Steve told the other two of her plan and they were trying to run interference - to corner him.
Of course he was with Tommy and Carol, the couple flanking him as they stood at Carol’s locker. It didn’t matter, though. She needed to talk to him and she was going to get it done, awkwardness be damned.
“Hey,” she said in way of greeting, earning a confused glance from Tommy and an amused one from Carol.
“Did Steve get tired of his rebound?” Carol mocked, closing her locker to turn her full attention to Jacqueline. No doubt she was wanting a reaction out of her, but she looked to Billy instead.
“I need to talk to you.”
He immediately raised his eyebrows.
“Do you?” A smirk grew on his lips and then he licked them. It took a lot out of her to not recoil right then. “Thought you said you never wanted me to talk to you again.”
“Has that ever stopped you?”
Billy assessed her carefully. “So what’d you want?” He was suddenly leering at her and Jacqueline had to resist the urge to hit him over the head with her Trapper Keeper.
“Stop trying to flirt with me,” she snapped. “I’m not interested. I want to talk to you.”
Carol opened her mouth, but Tommy wrapped an arm around her before saying they were going to head out. Billy said bye to them before focusing back on Jacqueline.
“Fine. What is it?”
“We should go -” She stopped herself before she could say ’somewhere more private,’ because that would surely set him back on the flirting path. “Let’s go to Ms. Harris’ room.”
She pointed across the hall to the art class. It was always one of the first classes to empty out at the end of the day and the door was propped open.
“Fine.” He took off and she followed, kicking the door stopper out of place and leaning against the door for support. Billy was sitting on the edge of the desk with his arms folded in front of himself.
“So, I talked to Max about some stuff the other day and, she didn’t say anything specific, but I think I figured out something. It just concerned me.” She tapped her foot. It might have been a bad move to close the door and shut herself in a room alone with him. “Is she - Are the two of you… safe at home?”
Billy’s eyes automatically turned to slits and she raised her hands in front of her body. His reaction was all she needed to know the answer.
“Wait. Look, I know what you did to Lucas and Steve, and that was completely unacceptable, and you got so lucky that you didn’t get your ass hauled off to jail that night, but -”
“It’s none of your business.”
“Maybe not.” She sighed but kept eye contact with him. “But I need you to swear to me that Max is not in any danger from anyone.” Hoping that her words were clear to him, that she included him in that, she took a step forward. It would be a few years before Max could get out of that house, maybe just another before Billy left himself, and she was going to help keep the girl safe. “Just know that if you lie to me and something happens to her, I have major connections to the Hawkins Police Department.”
Billy’s hands clenched into fists and Jacqueline watched him. For a second, she thought he would lunge at her, but instead he dropped his eyes.
“She’ll be alright,” he said after a couple of minutes of silence.
“Good.” Jacqueline smiled and moved to the door, grabbing the doorknob. She turned back once more. “She said you weren’t being a jerk anymore, but you have a lot to make up for, Billy. Get your act together.”
A groan sounded from him, but he didn’t say anything more as she left the room.
Steve was right there waiting for her when she came out of the room and she smiled, biting her lip at the sight of him.
“Everything okay?”
“I think it will be,” she said, wanting to reach for his hand, but instead gripping her bag tightly. “Can we go?”
“My house or yours?”
“Just take me home,” she said, and she didn’t have to look at him to see that he knew her meaning. Either place was fine by her.
Summary: Jacqueline Cooper was once the Queen of Hawkins High, but after a fight with Carol, she ran away from her best friend and popularity. Then Will Byers and Barbara Holland disappeared and they were thrust back into each other’s worlds. (Ao3)
Characters/Pairings: Steve x OC (slow burn), Steve x Nancy, hinted Jonathan x Nancy
Word Count: 1,786
Warnings: friendship and relationship angst, some language, general strange things
A/N: An all Jacqueline and Steve chapter! It’s about time they get to talk. This is also the last chapter of part one of this. Part two is complete and I will start posting it soon. I do not own Stranger Things, any of its characters, or dialogue. I did use some of the same scenes, of course, but I tried to make them my own.
one / two / three / four / five / six / seven / eight / nine / ten / eleven / twelve / thirteen, part one / thirteen, part two / fourteen
“Your face looks terrible,” Jacqueline said suddenly, still facing away from Steve as they stood on the Byers’ porch. It was the first time they had been alone in two months. To put it simply, it was strange, and it still hurt. But it never had been easy for her to keep her mouth shut around him.
He was quiet for a moment.
“Believe it or not, your new buddy Jonathan threw the first punch.” There was an edge in his voice she had never heard before. Jealousy? No doubt toward the friendship between Nancy and Jonathan. Even in the small amount of time that Jacqueline had spent with them, she could tell there was something there.
She shook her head at herself before turning to face him. You deserved it, she wanted to say, but instead, she said, “You know you’re bad at fights.”
A small smirk appeared on Steve’s mouth as he ran a hand through his hair.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before.”
“Steve! What happened to your eye?” Jacqueline rushed over to her window, pulling Steve into her room. He groaned as he hit the floor and jumped up quickly. Ninja, her ass. There was a darkening bruise under his left eye and she reached up to cup his cheeks in her hands so she could get a better look.
“Your hands are cold,” he murmured and she pulled them away.
“Sit down,” she demanded. “I’ll get you some ice.”
“No,” he said, reaching for her hand. “I’m fine.”
Steve sat down at the foot of her bed and she followed, fitting herself next to him. His grip on her hand wasn’t tight, but it was firm. It felt nice. At that thought, her throat tightened.
“Who did you get into a fight with?” When Jacqueline looked over at him, his eyes were trained on her face. “Why were you fighting?”
“It was - Andrew was running his mouth and so I shut it for him.”
“Did you now?” She asked, glancing pointedly at his eye.
Steve scoffed and rolled his eyes. “So, okay, he may not have a black eye, but he still knows not to talk about you ag-”
“He was talking about me?” She asked quietly. “And you fought him because of it?”
Steve looked at her sheepishly. “Well, yeah. I didn’t like what he was saying.”
Jacqueline gnawed on her bottom lip and wondered if she even wanted to know what Andrew had said. He was the type of guy who would start rumors about any girl who wouldn’t sleep with him. And he had been hitting on her for weeks.
“I couldn’t let him talk about you, Jac.” Steve was still grasping her hand and she nodded, lifting her free one back up to his face.
Her fingers gingerly slid over the swollen skin.
“Now we know something you’re bad at. You can play basketball and swim, but you’re bad at fights.”
Steve leaned into her hand and she subconsciously licked her lips, dropping her eyes down to his before looking back up at his eyes. The way he was looking at her almost took her breath away. His eyes were suddenly darker than usual and she instinctively leaned into him.
“Jac,” he whispered, moving the hand not holding hers to her hip. “Can I tell you something?”
She nodded her head quickly, not trusting herself to say anything. But before he could talk, the front door slammed and her mother was calling for her downstairs.
They quickly pulled apart and she stood up, glancing at him apologetically.
“Hold that thought.”
Standing with him now had become painfully awkward as she could tell that he was remembering the same moment. She didn’t find out what he was going to say to her because he was gone when she came back to her room, a bag of frozen peas in hand.
Then the next day had been her fight with Carol.
So much had changed since the last time they were alone.
She turned away from him again.
The silence was tense, but she was thankful that he didn’t walk away.
“How did you get involved in all of this?” He asked after a few minutes.
“I guess I needed a hobby,” she said sarcastically. Shrugging her shoulders, she continued, “Nancy called me to help her look for Barb and Will with Jonathan, and I had nothing else to do.”
It sounded like she was being a smartass, and a part of her was, but she was also being completely serious.
“But I didn’t know it was going to lead to this. I mean, this is crazy.”
Jacqueline turned around to him as he brought a hand up to rub at the back of his neck and stepped closer to her. That action always did something to her, seeing him so vulnerable and knowing he was still going to open up.
“Steve,” she rushed out, stopping him in his tracks when she focused on the cut above his eye. “You have to stop getting into fights. Stop lashing out at people.”
There was a pleading tone to her voice and he must have caught on because he looked down in shame.
“Jonathan threw -”
“But you made him. Nancy told me everything you said to him and none of that was okay.”
Jacqueline was briefly proud of herself for telling him what she thought and him for taking it.
Then she stepped forward and suddenly he was wrapping her up in his arms and her fingers clutched his sweater as she began to cry quietly against him. It was like the last few days, months, and last year, and her exhaustion, all caught up with her at once. And he was the only person she’d ever allowed herself to cry in front of.
She was still so mad at him, but god did she love him. Especially when he was like this, so open and willing to listen to her and comfort her when she needed it.
They stood there for what felt like hours but in reality was just a few minutes, him rubbing her back and her trying to regulate her breathing. When she felt like she could talk without crying some more, she tilted her head back and looked up at him.
“I’m not going to be friends with Tommy and Carol anymore,” Steve said, bringing a bright smile to her face.
“That’s good. Nancy is a much better friend than them.”
“And you?” Steve asked.
She tightened her grip on him and nodded.
“We can be friends.”
His eyes flickered from hope to something that looked more like hurt. But then he pulled her back to him and dropped a kiss on the top of her head.
“We should go find out where they went. Check the hospital maybe?” If they found Will, it made sense that they would immediately take the boy there.
The ride to the hospital was so quiet and comfortable that she drifted off, only to have Steve wake her up when they arrived.
“Come on, sleepy head,” he said, earning a groan from her even as she pushed herself out of his car. She stumbled a bit and he caught her with a look of concern written on his face.
“When was the last time you slept?” He asked.
“I haven’t slept well since, like, Thursday,” she answered honestly and, that night, instead of dropping her off at her house, Steve insisted that she stay with him to get some sleep.
Once she was well rested enough, they talked about everything that had happened - her fight with Carol, Nancy, and mostly missing her best friend. She didn’t mention her feelings for him, but that was for the best. He had Nancy and, as much as it hurt her, she could tell that he truly did like her. So, she was going to set aside her own feelings for her best friend and a girl who had just lost hers.
And, anyway, she had just gotten him back and that was all she needed in that moment.
She and Nancy didn’t talk much during the next month, but there was an understanding between them that no one else at school could figure out. But while the girl mourned the loss of Barb, at least she could confide in her boyfriend.
Shockingly enough, it was Jonathan who Jacqueline spoke to the most out of the two. They would often bump into each other at the record store she’d begun to work at to help her mom with bills, or the library. They’d end up talking for awhile about music or books they were reading. He was a lot less angsty now that Will was safe and at home.
She still cared deeply for Steve, and she didn’t have any feelings for Jonathan other than friendship, but it was still nice to have someone else to talk to who had been through a similar experience. She could tell that he had a fondness for Nancy. And the way he looked at Jacqueline when she mentioned Steve told her that he knew how she felt.
It was only natural that they would gravitate toward one another. They both needed a friend who they weren’t pining after.
Jacqueline spent a modest Christmas with her mom, one unlike any that she had ever had before. Instead of expensive gifts and a huge dinner with their entire family and her dad’s business associates, it was just the two of them with a few things to open up and their time spent cooking and talking about school and, of course, her mom’s favorite topic of boys. She didn’t mention anything about the Demogorgon (that was what Will and his friends were calling it, she had learned) or her complicated relationship with Steve, but it was pleasant all the same.
It was one the best Christmases she had ever had.
She had her best friend back, a couple of new friends who were definitely better than the popular crowd, and her mom seemed happier than she had since her dad had left.
On Christmas Eve, she found a small box laying on the front step. Inside was a gold necklace with two dainty pendants, a moon and a star. It was immediately obvious to her who it was from, so she was stunned when she opened the note tucked inside the box.
Jacqueline,
Thanks for helping us out with everything. You didn’t have to do any of it, but I’m glad you were there.
Steve helped me pick this out. He told me you used to have a necklace just like it that you lost.
